Taking the Challenge – What an Experience!

By Doreen Berson, Challenge Co-Chair

October 22, 2007

I was fortunate enough this year to actually Take the Challenge, instead of volunteering at it, as I have for the past 7 years. What  an experience! It was so exciting to actually see the Challenge tables and volunteers at each site and to see the smiling faces of the participants when they received their souvenirs. I must say that there was a feeling of accomplishment when I received a puzzle piece and added it to my Challenge souvenir board. We have Brett Franks to thank for the design and production of the souvenir puzzles - he did a great job!

Taking the Challenge took me to places in New Jersey that I rarely see. I had been to all of the lighthouses on the Challenge before, but never actually drove the Challenge route. It was a wonderful time of year – the weather was beautiful, some of the leaves were changing and there were many roadside stands decorated with orange pumpkins and colorful mums. For the first several lighthouses, I found myself traveling with the same Challenge participants – one of them made a wrong turn and the rest of us followed! (But we didn’t go that far out of the way. In fact, I was still “working” the Challenge by checking the directions to make sure they were accurate!)

What impressed me most during the Challenge weekend were the dedicated, hard-working NJLHS Volunteers that I saw at each lighthouse. Here it is, the Monday morning after the Challenge and I’m feeling a little exhausted from all the planning that went into it and all the driving I did during the weekend. But I’m sure I don’t feel half as tired as many of the Volunteers do! There were Volunteers who worked all day Saturday, then stayed for the Night Climbs – over 12 hours! Then they came back 8:00 the next morning and worked another 10 hours! How did they do this? And how is it that they were still enthusiastic on Sunday afternoon?

Many of them have come back year after year and volunteer their time for the entire weekend. I can’t thank ALL the Volunteers enough, no matter how many hours you worked. We could not have done the Challenge without you! I have one last comment about the weekend. Laura Portée, Challenge Co-Chair, took on the Coordinator duties during the weekend that I usually do. She did this so I could enjoy the Challenge and enjoy my first wedding Anniversary, which was October 21st. I can’t thank her enough for the great job she did – I’m anxious to talk to her this morning and find how things went Sunday afternoon, but I’m sure she’s sleeping and will contact her later. THANK YOU, Laura! “Thank you” to all those who participated in the Challenge. If you haven’t already taken the Challenge, please consider taking it next year – you’ll be glad you did! (Note: We’ll be compiling the statistics for Challenge 2007 as soon as we get the data from the site coordinators. This information will then be posted on the Challenge page of the www.njlhs.net web site. It will also appear in the March 2008 issue of the Beam.)

© 2008 NJLHS