Neighbors and Competitors
I love our neighbors to the south at the Baltimore Lighthouse. Just having “lighthouse neighbors” is a really cool thing to be able to say. They’ve visited us and I’ve visited them. We even came up with a plan to flash light signals to each other at night as a game to see if we could see each other. Unfortunately, being owners of such unique and close-together watertop historic properties also means we’re competitors - competing for donations of goods and dollars, volunteers, media attention, etc. Not all of those can be shared at the same time.
I guess this is one case where having the only lighthouse with a nuclear generator in its history trumps being the first caisson on the Chesapeake (the fact that the aesthetic design improved over the years probably helps too). As I mentioned before, I nominated our fair lighthouse for new Jeld-Wen windows in this year’s competition. I eagerly anticipated being chosen as a finalist and fantasized about what a tremendous leap forward getting new windows and a door would be for the lighthouse and the organization! I mean, that would fast forward our restoration by at least a year or two, not to mention make working in there during the sweltering heat of summer more manageable! I had no idea who else entered.
I spent a weekend writing up answers to the follow-up questionnaire received after the initial nomination and bundled in historic and current photos. Then waited. I never received a reply indicating they had received my submission. I never received a form letter stating, “Sorry, but you were not chosen at this time. Please try again next year.”
So I was shocked to tears when I received a forwarded email soliciting votes for another lighthouse and quickly went to their site where I scanned the 12 finalist lighthouse photos, looking for a spark of recognition of the one I’ve become so intimately familiar with. Nope, not there. I scanned again… that’s when I saw the Baltimore Light.
I’m proud of them and definitely encourage everyone to vote for theirs. The lighthouse is beautiful with unpainted wood and gorgeous architecture throughout and lovely stewards. Yet, the sting is there. I’ve tried so hard to do this non-profit thing right, scared to death yet propelling forward towards opening the light to public tours and worried about falling on my face due to lack of support. Every time it rains or powerful storms roll through (as many have over the last several weeks), I worry about what else needs to be bought or paid for to stem the potential new leaks. We don’t have the most romantic and well-recognized light like Thomas Point. We don’t have the prettiest caisson. We’re hard to access. We’re out in the water where only fisherman and people who grew up in the small fishing villages even know we exist. Raising money and support has been hard, especially with bigger more well-known lights in the immediate area.
So right now I just want to cry with the painful disappointment of not being good enough to make the list. Oh yeah, and re-add new windows and doors to the budget and fundraising plans. Because I don’t think we can wait another year for something that definitely isn’t a sure thing.
Congrats to our neighbors, though, and best of luck!