Letter: Maritime Archaeology and Education Center a reality

Kathy A. Fleming, Executive Director
St Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum

Dear Editor:

This year we’ve made amazing strides towards making our new Maritime Archaeology and Education Center a reality. Over the past five years we’ve raised over two million dollars to improve exhibitions, restore the historic site, purchase the Light Station and serve more senior citizens and children than ever before.

Now we are ready to finish our campaign and construct a 2,500 sq ft. Maritime Archaeology & Education Center.

This fall we launched the final phase of our fundraising campaign and we need only $500,000 more to complete our campaign by March 31, 2016. In the past few weeks, we’ve raised $200,000 toward that final goal.

Now, we need your help more than ever!

We are asking you to consider making a difference in this critical effort. A gift of just $42 per month over five years will help provide spaces that save history and teach children. You will also receive an 8×8 tile on our Maritime Archaeology & Education Center campaign wall and either you or a loved one can become a permanent part of community history. We need only 140 gifts of this size to make our building a reality.

What will your gift do?

Allow children who are seeing the ocean for the first time to engage in summer camp activities in an ADA accessible indoor learning space.
Provide new learning and conservation space where university students engage in documenting their underwater finds; telling the stories of our Nation’s Oldest Port.

Create viewing access for the public to see real time archaeological conservation and research first hand.

Please consider this opportunity to make a gift of $42 per month and help the museum engage and stimulate young minds with authentic science and history. Your gift is tax deductible and helps preserve America’s history for future generations and expand the knowledge of our community’s unique past.