BY SHERRY CONOHAN
Staff Writer
The fourth annual New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge will take place Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 18 and 19, testing the skill of the admirers of those stately beacons to get around to all 11 that will be open to the public.
The lighthouses on the Challenge trail include the Sandy Hook Lighthouse, the oldest continuously operating lighthouse in the country; Twin Lights, atop the bluff in Highlands; and the Sea Girt Lighthouse — all in Monmouth County.
Tom Laverty, president of the New Jersey Lighthouse Society, sponsor of the Lighthouse Challenge, said that a trading card, similar to a baseball card, will be issued to visitors at each lighthouse, with a picture of that lighthouse on the front and historical information about it on the back. He said visitors also will be issued a plastic container in which to put the trading cards they collect.
"They do all sorts of things with the cards," he said, which first were issued last year. "Some matte and frame them, and some put them in scrapbooks."
Laverty explained that the idea of the challenge is to get to all 11 lighthouses on the mainland, running down the Atlantic coast from Sandy Hook to Cape May and up the Delaware River to Tinicum light in Billingsport, almost across the river from Philadelphia International Airport.
Last year, Laverty said, there were about 1,000 completions of all 11 lighthouses over the weekend, which is a new record.
"There had only been 400 to 500 in pervious years," he said.
Everyone who visits all 11 lighthouses will be issued a certificate of accomplishment at the tour’s end for completing the challenge.
Laverty said the society thinks about 6,000 people in all took part in the lighthouse visitation last year, with many going to just one, two or three. That’s three times the 2,000 people who participated just two years ago.
Laverty said many of the lighthouses are open only on a "piecemeal" basis during the rest of the year.
"All the ones on the tour people can actually climb," he added.
There’s a total of 20 lighthouses on land and water in the state, he added.
He said those that are open for the challenge will be staffed by members of the New Jersey Lighthouse Society who will be handing out the cards.
Up until this year, Laverty said, New Jersey was unique as the only state offering a tour of its lighthouse. But this year, he said, "Maryland jumped into the ring" with a tour in September of its lighthouses put on by the Chesapeake chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society. He said he’s also gotten queries from the Florida Lighthouse Association and a Maine lighthouse.
Laverty said New Jersey’s lighthouse tour has become very popular and the Lighthouse Society is now getting requests for information about the next one as soon as one tour ends.
"We get letters from people all over the country," he said. "We’ve been sending out information since January and February. We have gotten requests from as far away as California. A lot of people love it. In one sense, it’s a big road rally, but you don’t have clues. You have directions.
"But the goal," he noted, "is to get those cards."
Laverty said the goal of the Lighthouse Society’s Challenge is to increase awareness of New Jersey’s lighthouses and promote their support.
The lighthouses are financed in various ways. The Sandy Hook Lighthouse is maintained by the federal government as part of the Gateway National Recreation Area’s Sandy Hook unit and is staffed by New Jersey Lighthouse Society volunteers. Twin Lights, on the other hand, is operated by the state as is Barnegat Lighthouse in Ocean County. Other lighthouses are supported by municipalities and/or private organizations with donations from the public.
In addition to the ones already mentioned, the other lighthouses on the tour are Tucker’s Island at the Tuckerton Seaport, Absecon Lighthouse in Atlantic City, Hereford Inlet Lighthouse in the Wildwoods, Cape May Lighthouse, East Point Lighthouse in Heislerville, Finns Point Rear Range Light near Pennsville, and Tinicum Rear Range Lighthouse.
For more information, anyone interested in the Lighthouse Challenge can go to the Lighthouse Society’s Web site at www.njlhs.burlco.org or e-mail [email protected].
Laverty was looking forward to another banner turnout for the Challenge this year.
"We’ve been blessed with beautiful weather the last three years," he observed.