Events

How To Starry Night

November 11, 2014

Starry Night 12

November 22 is coming up and what are you doing? Attending Starry Night is the correct answer. And you’re probably wondering what this Starry Night is all about because you’ve been hearing of it for a while, but now you want to know more. Perfect.

Starry Night 3

Starry Night is Star Island’s premiere mainland event each fall. We gather in the Discover Portsmouth Center for an evening of great fun. There’s live music from the Brown & White Band. Food is provided this year from Take Away Cafe. And, we’ll have a crafts gallery offering gifts and other items for you to peruse and purchase. Best part, a portion of the money you spend in the crafts gallery goes to support Star Island.

Starry Night kicks off with First Star at 4 pm. This year, First Star features writer/producer/director/comedian Steve Skrovan who will speak to humor in our everyday lives. Tickets for First Star provide entry into the crafts gallery with live music.

Tip for Visitors:

If you’re making the trip up to Portsmouth, NH for Starry Night, our friends at the Best Western Wynwood Hotel are offering a 25% discount if you call 603-436-7600 and mention the Z9 discount code.

 

Click Here for Your Starry Night Tickets

If you get to Portsmouth early in the day and have time to explore, we suggest walking around the beautiful downtown area. There are a number of unique shops, historical sites, and great restaurants to fill your day until Starry Night starts.

Events

Veteran’s Raffle Opens

November 11, 2014

Veterans Raffle Banner

As announced in Seacastonline.com yesterday and other outlets today, Star Island is holding its second annual Veteran’s Raffle starting today, Tuesday, November 11. This raffle is Star Island’s way of celebrating the Veteran community, and offering what we can to provide something to honor those who have sacrificed to serve our country. The raffle winner, and his or her household, receives a free 7-night stay on Star Island during the 2015 summer.

Click here to read the Seacoastonline story

Click here for our story in the UCC Keeping You Posted ezine

The raffle goes through Friday, December 12, and the winner will be announced the following week after confirmation of veteran status. We encourage all veterans to enter this free raffle.

Click here to enter the raffle

More information about the Veteran’s Raffle may be found at StarIsland.org/Veterans.

Fundraising

AmazonSmile: Support Star Island While you Shop

November 11, 2014

AmazonSmileLogo

When you shop online this holiday season, you can support Star Island. Load up your shopping cart on Amazon.com and through AmazonSmile the gifts you buy your friends and family may also be gifts for Star.

Here are the simple steps to shop Amazon with Star Island in mind:

  1. Click here to log-in to Amazon Smile
  2. Do your online shopping
  3. .5% of eligible purchases will be sent to Star Island

History

Softball Throwback

October 16, 2014

Maybe your favorite Star Island softball team will never make it to the World Series because, well, that’s for professional baseball. But it’s fall, baseball is on our minds, and we’ve uncovered a little bit of Star Island history in the office today as we are going through some of the Vaughn Cottage archives to help some researchers. Here are some photographs from scorebooks kept during the late 1960’s and 70’s of Conference vs. Pelican softball games. We’re already looking forward to more softball games on the front lawn next summer.

All Star 1 v. Pelicans 1975

International Affairs v. Pelicans 1969

International Affairs v. Pelicans 1975

Laity v. Pelicans 1974

Pelicans v. Pelicans 1975

On the Island

Fall Projects: Solar Array and Pier Resurfacing

October 15, 2014

The summer season is definitely over, as the weather reminds us most days, but our work on Star Island continues deep into the autumn. About fifteen staff members will remain on island through the end of this week, and a smaller crew returning for the next couple of weeks. The island staff tend to their usual fall tasks which include such things as cleaning all the linens on island, flushing water from pipes, and dismantling the reverse osmosis machine.

In 2014, several groups of contractors are joining our island staff to complete important projects. The solar array, which is about a month away from completion, includes the placement of large concrete blocks as a foundation for the solar panels and other supporting infrastructure. As you may have heard during a sustainabiltiy talk on island this summer, the solar array will provide apporximately 60% of Star Island’s energy needs starting in 2015. We look forward to kicking off next summer with a ribbon cutting/flip switching ceremony.

StarIslandSolarArrayConstruction
Pier upgrades have been ongoing for several weeks now. The ocean side of the pier has been reinforced with additional concrete adding stability to the structure during storms. Large rocks, known as riprap, will also be added to the ocean side of the pier to lessen the force of storm swells. The top of the pier started a transformation yesterday. Much of the top layer will be demolished and replaced with a new top of concrete and supporting materials.

StarIslandPierConstruction
And while the summer has its usual sights of boats sailing past and beautiful sunsets, autumn on Star Island sees a barge parked in Gosport Harbor. This barge recently brought more heavy equipment to the island to support the solar and pier projects, as well as a used flatbed truck to replace one recently decommissioned on island.

StarIslandBargeAtPier
These projects can be completed because of the support of our community through grants, donations, and volunteer work. We are greatly appreciative of all the support. If you’d like to donate to our Annual Fund to support these ongoing projects and plan for another successful year, please Click Here.

Fundraising

A Reminder Of All That Is Made Possible By Your Generosity

October 15, 2014

StarIslandPeopleChatting

It’s the time of year that starts with candy corn and jack-o-lanterns and ends with champagne toasts that welcome in a new year. Within the merriment comes the Star Island year-end appeal that you will receive this month. The letter from Joe Watts is a reminder of all that is made possible by your generosity. You can click here to make your 2014 gift now or return your gift in the envelope provided with the mailing, which will also provide an overview of your recent giving history!

With your help we are beginning the 100th anniversary year of the Star Island Corporation on a solid foundation having surpassed our occupancy goals and generated the biggest operating gain in the history of the Corporation. We take pride in forecasting a surplus budget for 2015 that continues to include a robust financial aid program that since 2011 has helped 192 families with room and board and provided discounts to 72 Pelicans who returned to a conference of their choice in 2013.

Click here to contribute to Star Island

 

In 2015 we will flip the switch on renewable solar power that is expected to generate more than 60 percent of our energy needs. What a way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Star Island. Could our founding fathers and mothers ever have imagined what would come of their foresight?

It’s our turn now. Please do what you can to ensure as bright a future for Star as has been fulfilled thus far.

Star Island Corporation

Seeking Photographs for 2015 Publications

October 07, 2014

Hey, we saw you taking pictures of Star Island this summer — now it’s time to share them with us!

Look through your images from Star Island 2014 and send us your best ones so that we might include them in our 2015 Program Catalog, seasonal newsletters, and on our website.

What type of pictures are we looking for?

  • People having fun on Star Island: row boat rides, softball games, social hours, tennis matches, trivia games, eating in the dining hall, ordering a lime rickey.
  • People enjoying program activities: listening to a theme talk, leading a workshop, making s’mores, working on a craft project.
  • Traditional Star Island scences: People lining up for candlelit chapels, the grand march.
  • Basically we are looking for pictures of people having fun on Star Island in many different ways.
  • We’re not averse to a good sunset picture, too.

How can you share your photos with Star Island?

  • Email a link of your online photo album (like Google’s Picassa) to ambassadors@starisland.org (please don’t share Facebook photo albums as the quality of the picture is not great for print)
  • Mail a CD with your photos to the Star Island office – 30 Middle Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801
  • Please do not email individual pictures or our email server will bounce them.

Please note that print quality pictures are 300 dpi.

The deadline to be included in our 2015 Program Catalog is Friday, October 31, 2014

Fundraising

Generosity from all Ages Supports a Thriving Star Island

October 01, 2014

Walking to Dock

The spirit of generosity is abundant and obvious on Star Island. You see it everywhere in improvements to accessibility, sustainability, livability and more. And nowhere is it clearer than when a child donates her week’s snack bar allowance because she wants to earn a jewel for her name badge that shows she cares about Star Island.

Or when Senior Teens conduct a service project because this is what they can give to support capital projects. Or in an eight-year-old child’s face as she stands at the dining room microphone, having been appointed Chief Polar Bear and wearing the coveted polar bear hat, and announces the daily polar plunge tallies. Shoalers dig deep to serve, to volunteer, to give.

Click here to donate to Star Island

 

There are only a few weeks left in 2014 to express our gratitude for the many gifts Star gives to us – the gift of time with life-long friends and family in a most remarkable community and breath-taking setting; the gift of laughter; the gift of loving community in which to share life’s markers both joyous and painful; the gift of reflection in morning and evening chapel; the gift of music and music making; the gift of a safe environment in which children learn, grow, and become confidently independent; the gift of talents and wisdom freely shared; the gift of sunrises and sunsets witnessed from a rocker on the Oceanic’s front porch.

All of this is only and entirely made possible through your support. Great gratitude for you commitment and your generosity. Click here to give.

History

Star Island Receives Grant from Historic New England

September 21, 2014

Star Island is the recent recipient of a $1,000 Community Preservation Grant from Historic New England. Click here to learn more about this grant program from Historic New England.

HistoricNewEnglandGrantImage

Star Island will use this grant money to digitize old films in the Vaughn Cottage collection that depict old Shoalers like Unlce Oscar. The films, which were on display in their cases in Vaughn throughout the summer, will be made available for viewing on the Star Island website and within Vaughn after the digital conversion.

Star Island is grateful for the continued support of Historic New England. The organization, which manages historic properties throughout New England, also partners with non-profits like Star Island to promote access to history. Over the past three summers, groups from Historic New England have visited Star Island for special tours of the island and its buildings.

Click here for more information about Vaughn Cottage, Star Island’s museum.

Fundraising

Support Star Island in 2014

September 15, 2014

StarIslandPeopleChatting

It’s the time of year that starts with candy corn and jack-o-lanterns and ends with champagne toasts that welcome in a new year. This time of year is a reminder of all that is made possible by your generosity. You can click here to make your 2014 gift now.

With your help we are beginning the 100th anniversary year of the Star Island Corporation on a solid foundation having surpassed our occupancy goals and generated the biggest operating gain in the history of the Corporation. We take pride in forecasting a surplus budget for 2015 that continues to include a robust financial aid program that since 2011 has helped 192 families with room and board and provided discounts to 72 Pelicans who returned to a conference of their choice in 2013.

In 2015 we will flip the switch on renewable solar power that is expected to generate more than 60 percent of our energy needs. What a way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Star Island. Could our founding fathers and mothers ever have imagined what would come of their foresight?

It’s our turn now. Please do what you can to ensure as bright a future for Star as has been fulfilled thus far.