The North Manitou Light Keepers (NMLK) team, families and supporters experienced a special sunset toast and birthday cake at “The Crib” Thursday evening.
NMLK was formed on August 16, 2016, and the journey has come a long way, but the non-profit group is still not finished yet.
“We've taken the plunge, no pun intended, to embrace this adventure, and it's one of those things where you just live life, taking something on and working to make it better. I'm grateful we did that. I'm grateful for how people have jumped on to be members and help support the cause,” NMLK President Dan Oginsky said. “There have been a lot of challenges, things you wouldn't expect. We've done a lot of growing together as a team, and there's definitely ups and downs, but all in all, it's such a great life experience. I'm grateful, in some respects, for being naive enough to take on such a big project. But also grateful for Dave and Jake and our wives and everyone being supportive, and for us banding together to take this on. I'm just filled with a lot of joy and gratitude for what we've been able to experience and excited about what's coming in front of us.”
Locals call it “The Crib” – a famous lighthouse marking the shallow shoal on the west side of the Manitou Passage that sits in 25 feet of water and threatens shipping lanes, first completed in 1935.
Thursday’s trip was the first time most of the immediate families of the founders were able to visit this project, which has meant so much to the board of directors, Dan and Anna, Dave McWilliam, Jake Kaberle and Jason Sieloff.
“For my mom and Anna's mom, my wife, this is literally their first time coming out. And for us to group like this. It's really special … We got a lot of our kids here too.”
The biggest challenges facing NMLK to have visitors stay overnight and to complete the project that has now lasted over a decade are focusing on completing the interior restoration and finishing the interior paint job, putting in cabinets and furnishings. In front of that is finishing the electrical system and the plumbing.
“The biggest challenge right now is working out exactly how the plumbing system's going to work and getting the right approvals for that,” Oginsky said. “We are going to draw water in from the lake through a filtering system for non-potable water and probably use water we take out of it for potable water, and the discharge system is gonna be all contained in a tank, and we'll pump it out, and we're innovating.”
The goal is to start offering overnight stays as a member benefit. NMLK still has to replace the L1 Deck (lower level, outside deck) and the main deck, repairing some of the concrete, putting the railings back on, and then we want to build a small endowment to help take care of it into the future.
“It's the same way we'll keep solving them, and it's a combination of persistence, being stubborn enough just to keep working at it, fitting it into other priorities of life, and some element of innovating. There's no blueprint for this. So we're just figuring out as we go along,” Oginsky said. “We're gonna see it through, and having enough fun with it, and working together, and enjoying doing it together. For a lot of our crew here, it's the joy of just making something happen … here's a problem that needs to be solved. We don't know how we're gonna do it, but let's start, and we're gonna take an idea and manifest it into reality. We're gonna make it happen.”
The North Manitou Light Keepers is a non-profit organization founded in 2016. Its mission is to restore the North Manitou Shoal Light Station, make it and its history available to the public for education and appreciation, and cultivate an active community of stewardship for this piece of Michigan maritime history that stands amidst one of America’s most beautiful locations.
The Crib houses currently active navigational equipment maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard. However, since 1980, when its navigational equipment was automated, the structure of the lighthouse had remained empty and lightly maintained.
In the summer of 2016, the U.S. General Services Administration opened an auction to sell the North Manitou Shoal Light.
Daniel and Anna Oginsky, Dave and Sherry McWilliam, Todd and Natalie Buckley, and Jake and Suzanne Kaberle founded NMLK to acquire The Crib and complete its restoration and hope to open it to the public
For more information about North Manitou Light Keepers, visit: www.northmanitoulightkeepers. Org.
Read More Thursday about The Crib’s 10th anniversary in print!
