Lighthouse Museum honors Peg Wiley for push in getting iconic structure built

Photos by Tom Rivers: Peg Wiley gets a standing ovation on Saturday when she was honored by the Oak Orchard Lighthouse museum for her work in spearheading the building of the lighthouse. Wiley clapped for the crowd. She said many people made the projecta reality and continue to volunteer in support of the site.

WATERPORT – The Oak Orchard Lighthouse’s annual fundraiser is called “Keep the Light On” for good reason.

“People don’t realize what it costs to keep the lighthouse going,” said Peg Wiley, who was recognized at the fundraiser Saturday night as the founding member of the Oak Orchard Lighthouse Board.

Chris Manaseri, president of the Oak Orchard Lighthouse board, shows Peg Wiley a plaque which will be hung in the lighthouse commemorating her vision in founding the original Lighthouse Board and initiating fundraising to build the lighthouse.

She explained they have ongoing expenses, including $2,500 a year for liability insurance, an electric bill and the cost of special oil paint which is ordered from Denmark and applied every few years.

The fundraiser Saturday night featured guest speaker Roy Widrig, New York Sea Grant Coastal Processes and Hazards Specialist for the Great Lakes region. In introducing him, Museum board member Dave Giacherio said Widrig had previously given a talk to the Oak Orchard Neighborhood Association, and was very well received.

Widrig provides assistance and educational outreach on issues associated with coastal erosion, shoreline erosion management and engineering and coastal flooding and mitigation. He spent some time this past week looking at the shore line of Lake Ontario in Orleans County.

“A lot of what I do involves the geologic processes which created our shoreline today,” Widrig said. “It took 10,000 to 30,000 years for glaciers to form and come down to carve out these lakes.”

He explained ice jams on several rivers resulted in sediment being deposited on shores, thus making the lake smaller than it originally was.

“This is happening in other parts of the world right now,” he said.

He showed videos of different ways to slow erosion on the shoreline, such as willow trees and strategically placed slabs of rock. He said Lake Ontario’s shore line is slowly sinking a couple of inches every year, and while it is not possible to slow the process, it is not all bad.

Following Widrig’s presentation, Chris Manaseri, president of the Oak Orchard Lighthouse Museum board, introduced Larry Albanese, who was one of the original members of the lighthouse board and serves today as its vice president. He also introduced Diane Blanchard, another original board member, who currently is board treasurer.

A slide show highlighting Peg Wiley’s involvement with the Oak Orchard Lighthouse declared her the “Oak Orchard Warrior.”

“Diane is the glue that held us all together,” Albanese said. “If it wasn’t for her and several others like her, there would be no lighthouse today.”

Wiley, who Manaseri called “the mover and shaker behind the lighthouse,” took the stage next to remember board members lost, including the very first member, Marge Sage, and Cheryl Staines, Diana Jeffords, Mike Masters and Dick Anderson. Dick’s wife Donna was also very supportive of the Oak Orchard Lighthouse, as were the late Gene and Joey Haines.

“Gene and Joey gave us the use of their beautiful cottage for our fundraisers, and never charged us a thing,” Wiley said.

Roy Widrig, New York Sea Grant Coastal Processes and Hazards Specialist for the Great Lakes region, was guest speaker at the Oak Orchard Lighthouse fundraiser Saturday night at Carlton United Methodist Church on Archibald Road in Waterport.

Also part of Wiley’s tribute was a video compiled by Cheryl Giacherio, documenting Wiley’s involvement as the lighthouse took shape, from an idea to a structure.

Construction on the lighthouse began in March 2010 and was completed by early summer. Since then, thousands of visitors have signed the log book from all over the world, including New Zealand, Turkey, Germany, Alaska, Ireland, Canada and all the states in the Union.

After the first dessert buffet fundraiser last year was a sellout, another was planned this year, with addition of a new feature – an inaugural photo contest.

Winners were announced at the end of Saturday’s program, with Tom Rivers placing first for his photo of the lighthouse during the Aurora Borealis in May, Robyn Ottaviano second, and Claire Squicciarini, granddaughter of the late Dick Anderson, third.

The meeting included a gallery of entries in the inaugural lighthouse photo contest. The top three photos at left, from top to bottom, include the first, second and third place winners.

Photos by Ginny Kropf: (Left) Diane Blanchard also was an original member of the Oak Orchard Lighthouse board and its secretary. Here she stands next to a 1/6 scale replica of the lighthouse built by Gregg Squicciarini, son-in-law of original board member, the late Dick Anderson. (Right) Larry Albanese, an original member of the Oak Orchard Lighthouse board, tells about Peg Wiley’s efforts in forming the board and being the catalyst to build the lighthouse.