After months of collecting small change, John F. Kennedy Elementary School students have raised about $500 to help restore the historic Stepping Stones Lighthouse, Great Neck Historical Society President Alice Kasten said Monday.
“The school has committed to helping save lighthouse,” Kasten said. “Now we have to get them out to the end of the dock to see actually see the lighthouse.”
But the students’ contributions does not end with collecting money.
Students from Kindergarten through fifth grade have also been creating projects, such as poems and posters, which are supposed to persuade people in the community to want to save the lighthouse.
Kasten said she and Great Neck Park District Board of Commissioners Chairman Bob Lincoln have judged the projects and picked the winners — two projects from each grade —and the kids with the winning projects will each get a free Stepping Stones Lighthouse T-shirt.
The awards, Kasten said, will be presented at 6 p.m. May 11 at the elementary school at 1A Grassfield Road, where the projects will be displayed.
Lincoln said judging was hard because the projects were done so well.
“Some were models of the lighthouse, some did essays, some did posters,” Lincoln said. “Each student came up with something to promote the lighthouse.”
Kasten plans to do a presentation May 11 to show how community members are trying to save the lighthouse.
Folksinger Dave Sear will also be on hand May 11 to sing some sea shanties as well, Kasten said, and Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Judy Bosworth will also speak about why the town has taken a stewardship roll of the lighthouse.
The park district and the town agreed in September to enter into an inter-municipal agreement to raise funds to restore the lighthouse. Through a partnership between the town and the historical society, the town will help assist with repairs.
The lighthouse, which was built in 1877, has been in disrepair for years.
The efforts to raise funds to repair the lighthouse started in August when the park district and historical society teamed up with the town to repair the structure, after years of neglect have left it in need of $4 million in repairs.
The National Park Service in 2012 threatened to take ownership of the lighthouse from the town, which was awarded stewardship of the structure in 2008 under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, after repairs to the structure went undone.
Kasten said the idea for JFK students to raise money began when she and Lincoln were selling Stepping Stone Lighthouse T-shirts at the Village of Great Neck Plaza Street Fair and Auto Fest in September.
She said JFK School principal Ron Gimondo approached her and Lincoln about helping to save the lighthouse.
“He bought T-shirts and got all excited about the preservation of the lighthouse,” Kasten said. “He brought the idea back to the school and then they asked us to do a presentation for their entire school.”
Lincoln and Kasten gave a presentation to the JFK students, highlighting the importance of saving the lighthouse. Bosworth spoke to the students as well, Kasten said.
“The kids got all excited,” Kasten said. “The kids were really upset about the possibility of it falling apart and they vowed to raise funds.”
Lincoln said he and Kasten are willing to talk to any community group that wants to know more about the lighthouse.
Their presentation, she said, tells the history of the lighthouse and shows people what steps need to be taken to restore it.
Kasten and Lincoln haven’t presented in front of any other Great Neck schools yet, Lincoln said, but they have reached out to the Great Neck North High School students who are helping with a fundraiser. EM Baker School students also spontaneously raised some money to help save the lighthouse as well, Lincoln said.
About $15,000 has been raised so far to restore the lighthouse, well short of the $4 million needs to be raised, Kasten said.
“We need the community to pitch in,” she said. “What we need is a pro bono grant writer. We need people to give their skills so that we can raise the money. We can’t even afford to pay a grant writer.”
Tom Devaney, grants coordinator for the town, does write grants to get funding for lighthouse repairs, Bosworth said.
But, Bosworth said, the town was denied April 28 a public grant from the Maritime Heritage Program through the National Park Service.
The grant is open again this year, and the town plans to apply again.
“We’re trying to raise consciousness,” Bosworth said. “There’s an educational component, and just working with the JFK kids works to fulfill that requirement.”
