Fundraising

A Long, Beautiful Answer to a Short Question

Bruce Parsons Giving Tuesday

About a month ago we reached out to a few folks asking them to help us prepare for #GivingTuesday. The request involved asking for a photo of the person on Star Island, plus a one to two sentence answer to: Why do you give to Star Island? We’re sending out those responses throughout the day on Facebook and Twitter.

One couple, Bruce and Carole Parsons, responded so amazingly in more than two sentences. And we just had to share their thoughts. So while the little image we post on Twitter might give a couples of sentences, here’s what they really wanted to say:

Why do you give to Star Island?

As you know room and board rates do not cover the full expenses to run and maintain Star Island. Its old buildings, constantly being battered by hard weather, need constant maintenance. New regulations and outside agencies regularly have the island make upgrades to its buildings and systems. The Board and Staff have worked very hard to create the façade of the island to be as it looked over 100 years ago. This is not easy, especially while the systems needed to operate it like the new solar fields, wastewater, reverse osmosis, etc are all very current high tech expensive pieces of equipment. I often use the analogy that Star is a like a Model A with a Ferrari Engine.

Most importantly we give to Star because it is our responsibility. We have inherited this place from those before us who also gave and worked so hard to make sure it survived and had a future, the likes of Albert and Edith Doolittle, Dave and Edith Pierson, Harry Lent, Roly Greeley, Warren Witherell, Ruth Twiss, Ruth Coe, Pop Bourne, Dick Soule, Lyman Rutledge, Fred and Ginny McGill, the list goes on and on. We are the current stewards of Star Island and we feel we are responsible to make sure Star is here and in good shape for the next generation.


If you would like to give to the Star Island Annual Fund, please click here to donate online.