FOR OUR MEMBERS: Your spring/summer issue of the DCJ is in the mail! We haven’t been able to meet or to hold Homecoming anytime during the past year and longer due to Dorian and Covid, so this issue focuses on what’s been happening in the village during that time period. There are updates and photos of the church, the George Dixon house project, the Babb house, Henry’s, lots of news, and some Down East folks who have been a big help to us. If you’re not a member and would like to join and receive our Doctor’s Creek Journals, we’d love to have you join us!
CAN YOU HELP?
FPI has taken on an urgent project of helping the Park pay for a new roof for the George Dixon house. Once scheduled for demolition after Hurricane Dorian, the Park maintenance crew got it stabilized, braced and upright, and now it desperately needs a roof. FPI has committed to $15,000 for the roof but we need much, much more to get the roof on before hurricane season is upon us again. All donors will receive a confirmation letter for tax purposes and will be recognized in our Doctor’s Creek Journal newsletter. If you can help, you may send a check to Friends of Portsmouth Island, P.O. Box 2303, Morehead City, NC 28557. Please note “George Dixon House roof” on your check. No amount is too small. Thank you!
Fall Meeting – September 18, 2021
We are pleased to announce our fall membership meeting will be held at Core Sound Waterfowl Museum at Harkers Island on Saturday, September 18. The meeting will begin at 10:00 am. The meeting is open to the public and you do not have to be a member to attend. We can’t wait to see the museum since its reopening and hope you will join us to do the same. Stay tuned to this page for further meeting details as we get them. We will be glad to see you!
Happy Thanksgiving!
We at Friends of Portsmouth Island want to wish you all a happy and safe Thanksgiving with your families and friends! For our members, be on the lookout for your winter issue of the Doctor’s Creek Journal within the next two weeks!
Fall Meeting Cancelled
We regret that the September membership meeting will be cancelled due to the current Covid crisis. Our governor is keeping the state in Phase 2 for the next 5 weeks. We do not want to endanger any attendees by having this meeting and reluctantly will cancel.
FOR OUR MEMBERS: Since elections were to be held at the September meeting, we will have to do this a different way, probably by mail ballots. All members will receive information on this in the next few weeks.
We are sorry to miss you all and will concentrate on plans for our spring meeting at Ocracoke on May 15, 2021. Hope to see you there!
Good News!
We are happy to report there was no damage at Portsmouth Village after Hurricane Isaias. Our neighbor island, Ocracoke, was also unscathed. We are very grateful!
Homecoming – 2022
We are so sorry and incredibly sad that we had to cancel Homecoming 2020 in April due to the Coronavirus. The next Portsmouth Homecoming will be scheduled in April 2022 – two years from now. We felt this was best to keep it on the regular schedule of every two years which is also in keeping with our by-laws. We will hold the Homecoming raffle at our September 19 meeting at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum for those who already purchased their tickets. You do not have to be present to win but we hope you will come! Stayed tuned to this website and to our Facebook page for further details. Thank you!
Homecoming Cancelled
We regret to inform you that Homecoming 2020 has been cancelled due to the new government mandates regarding events for 50+ people. If you have purchased raffle tickets, we will hold the raffle at a later date after we get all this sorted out. Stay tuned to this website and our Facebook page for any future details. This was a most difficult decision but we had no choice. Thank you!
Homecoming 2020
Homecoming is Saturday, April 25 – and we have a new theme! Thanks – or no thanks – to Hurricane Dorian, we have chosen the theme “Portsmouth Rises” to replace the hunt club theme. Special t-shirts will be offered for this homecoming and will be available on a first come first serve basis. And as usual, all attendees will receive the traditional homecoming pin at sign-in.
We encourage you to make lodging accommodations at Ocracoke now as we hear the motels (fewer this year) are booking up. You don’t want to miss seeing why we chose “Portsmouth Rises” as our theme this year.
Fall Meeting Recap
Thanks to all who came out for our September 21 membership meeting in Morehead City. We counted 55 in attendance and gained 11 new members. Welcome!
Our thanks to Steve Anderson of the Carteret County Historical Society for his presentation highlighting the Carteret County and Portsmouth soldiers who fought in WWI.
We were pleased to announce that Friends of Portsmouth Island will establish a scholarship in honor of Richard Meissner, a past president of FPI and former Volunteer Coordinator for CALO. Dallas Spruill, lifetime member of FPI, presented Richard with the award. More information will be available on the scholarship after the first of the year and we plan for it to be available for the Fall 2020 school year.
Jeff West, Superintendent of Cape Lookout, gave a slide presentation showing the damage to Portsmouth Village from Hurricane Dorian. He detailed each of the affected buildings and explained the clean up process that started immediately after the hurricane. Crews from several national parks worked for the past two weeks removing and burning downed trees, cleaning out the mud and debris from houses and buildings and pressure washing them down, repairing floors and blown out walls, and repairing and resetting broken headstones. The damage was great and we are indebted to all the crews who came out to work in the mud, water, heat and mosquitos to help in our time of need. Way to go NPS!
We would like to thank everyone who came out and all our volunteers who helped with the meeting. Thanks to Jan Tugwell, Suzanne McWilliams, Jeanne Robertson, Richard Meissner, Ann Shipstedt, and our great board members. Special thanks to the History Place, Steve Anderson, and Jeff West, and to Frances Eubanks for the photographs.