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New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge® 2007: An Overwhelming Success!
By Doreen Berson and Laura Portée, Challenge Co-Chairs

This year’s New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge®, held on October 20th and 21st was a huge success! Once again, we had two beautiful autumn days, filled with seasonal temps and bright sunshine – one of the best times of the year to travel New Jersey. Participants saw parts of New Jersey they may have never seen before. Others were “seasoned” Challengers who had done the trip in previous Octobers and visited places they were familiar with. And of course, the highlight of the Challenge, were the Lighthouses. All were opened to the public for climbing this year, giving participants beautiful views of the surrounding areas and an opportunity to learn more about the lighthouses as vital aids to navigation.

Here are Highlights of the New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge® 2007
    ·     22,480 Visitors - a 26% increase over 2006
    ·     2,346 Starters - a 39% increase over 2006
    ·     1,789 Finishers - a 51% increase over 2006
    · 76% of Starters completed the Challenge - up from 70% in 2006

    ·     148 Dual Challengers (they completed the Maryland and New Jersey Challenges),
a 2% increase over 2006; represents 32% of the total MD Challenge finishers
    · 65 Triple Challengers (they completed the Long Island, Maryland and New Jersey
Challenges), down 2% from 2006; represents 30% of the total LI Challenge finishers

We would like to thank everyone who helped to make this Challenge possible, especially the Volunteers. We could not have done it without you! “Thank You” to those who participated, and we hope to see you again next year!

We’re already planning for next year’s Challenge. The New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge® 2008 will be held on October 18th and 19th. It will feature 2 new sites:
The Barnegat Light Historical Museum and Lens and
The Cape May County Historical Museum and Lens.

The Fresnel lenses housed in each of these museums are beautiful, historical and definitely a site to see!

We’ll be looking for volunteers at these sites, along with people to assist us in the planning stages. If you can help, please contact Doreen Berson at dor0102@comcast.net or 732-202-7420.

We hope you’ll join us for Challenge 2008 – 11 Lighthouses and 2 Lenses!