Lake Superior Magazine has given out its annual Achievement Award since 1994 to individuals and groups who have contributed significantly to the well being of Lake Superior and its peoples. The Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore provides a can-do role model for others, and even more, it has connected a national treasure to its local community in a way that energizes commitments and communication. Because of that work – and its milestones this year of fundraising and organizational growth – we are honored to give the Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore the 2021 Lake Superior Magazine Achievement Award.
Ask anyone … you can accomplish just about anything with the right friends.
It might feel that way to the members of the Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. The 19-year-old, all-volunteer group – which just hired its first paid staff – has reached another milestone this year. It’s now raised half a million dollars for projects within the national lakeshore.
Standing on its four pillars of Accessibility, Education, Service and Stewardship, this active group of “friends” has tackled projects large, small and downright home-grown.
JEFF RENNICKE
Find out more about the Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and its work at friendsoftheapostleislands.org. At right, Erica Peterson and Lynne Dominy cut the ribbon this summer.
JEFF RENNICKE
A new accessible amphitheater on Stockton Island.
This summer, Friends members joined the National Park Service staff in cutting the ribbon on a $55,000 accessible amphitheater on Stockton Island. Over the years, they’ve created another kind of accessibility, too, helping to bring hundreds of school children out to the islands in their Lake Superior backyard that, for lack of a family boat or kayak, they might never otherwise experience.
The group even raised $7,000 to install a flagpole out at Little Sand Bay this year so the flag of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa can fly to acknowledge their cultural ties to the landscape and their treaty rights.
“The way I always put it,” says the new co-executive director, Jeff Rennicke, “is that a friends group helps people help the park. That’s the core of what Friends does; we help people stay in touch with the place that they love.”
Erica Peterson, current chair of the Friends’ board of directors, would agree. She’s been involved with the group since its early days as a longtime friend of the late Martin Hanson, who founded the non-profit group in 2002.
“For me,” says Erica, “the big thing is that I can’t sit down and write a check for $500,000, but I can sit down and write a grant. Working with a community of people … it preserves something that I hold special about this park.”
Early on, the group created an endowment under the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation and its funding and membership blossomed. The volunteer organization uses grant writing and other fundraising tools, such as sales of an amazing series of Milky Way island night shots by photographers Mark Weller, John Okerstrom and Jaime Lanxon. (The group is seeking “night sky” designation for the lakeshore.)
“We’ve grown from that very small thing to what we are now,” Erica says. She adds that the public is realizing the National Park Service can’t be the only stewards of these national treasures. Taxpayer money covers basic operations, but other support is needed for the increasing challenges of high visitations, old infrastructure and climate change.
The Friends has helped, too, with the extended 50th anniversary activities commemorating the designation of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore – extended into 2021 because COVID curtailed last year’s events.
SOEI YOUTH PROGRAMS
SOEI YOUTH PROGRAMS
JEFF RENNICKE
JEFF RENNICKE
Apostles’ Superintendent Lynne Dominy has worked several decades in parks and appreciates friends groups for what they can do and for the relationships they can sow.
“I’ve been fortunate to work with ‘friends’ for over 30 years. People have deep connections to these national parks that motivates them to give their time or money or their hearts to care for these places. Becoming a ‘friend’ helps people to combine their efforts together to have a lasting impact.”
Lynne is particularly pleased with the Friends’ ability to improve accessibility across the park and access to it. “Friends’ works to make the park accessible to everyone by adding boardwalks, ramps, and other improvements to park facilities,” Lynne says. “They also help schools access the park by getting transportation grants to cover boat costs to the islands.” Until COVID started, the Friends supported an overnight camping program for sixth graders done in partnership with the NPS and Northland College. The Island School enabled kids to learn and appreciate the Apostles’ geology, ecology and heritage.
“We will continue to work with the Friends to connect kids locally and virtually to the park” Lynne says.
Next May, the Friends will join the NPS and Northland College to offer the “Island School” experience for the 35th year. Although the Island School predates the Friends, the group has become a major supporter. The Island School gives an overnight island experience for sixth-graders from local and regional schools to learn and appreciate the Apostles’ geology, ecology and heritage. “The Island Schools … are really vital for helping kids connect,” Lynne says.
The lakeshore is an economic driver for the region, Jeff points out, one the local community should get to know.
Another milestones for the Friends this year was hiring co-executive directors, Jeff and Jill Rennicke, as its only paid staff. Jeff jokes that co-directing is the perfect match for the husband-wife team, who had already been involved with Friends. A freelance writer/photographer with national contacts, Jeff excels at communication, and Jill, a meeting/event planner and former member of the Bayfield City Council, is adept at the logistics, organizing and working with the donor base.
“He definitely has his strengths and I have mine,” says Jill. “Six months in, and it’s going well."
JEFF RENNICKE
JEFF RENNICKE
MARK WELLER
Jeff has been creating videos, programs and newsletters for the Friends. He points out ways the Friends aid stewardship. “People come to this park, and they fall in love with the beaches, but beaches are also very fragile.” For instance, 17 Friends volunteers planted more than 4,000 plugs of beach grass on the islands. “The Park Service can do that, but we can help them enhance that,” says Jeff, adding, “We are the official philanthropic partner – we are able to solicit donations for funding that the park can’t do.”
As exciting as what the Friends group has accomplished are the projects to come, say those involved.
One undertaking is to finish an accessible boardwalk across Sand Island from the East Bay Dock to the lighthouse. The project touches all the Friends four pillars. It creates accessibility across rough terrain, saves native plants from trampling, offers information about ecological and human heritage and serves the park’s desire to showcase its treasures, like a lighthouse made with locally quarried sandstone.
“We are all coming together to put our best foot forward,” Jeff says of such projects. “There’s a lot of friends, there are a lot of people with different skills. Together we are better than we are alone.”
That is what friends are for, after all.
Past Winners
2020 Superior Watershed Partnership & Land Conservancy
2019 Madeline Island Ferry Line and Apostle Islands Cruises
2018 Fred Stonehouse, maritime historian/author
2017 Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation
2016 Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
2015 Paul Pepe, manager of tourism for Thunder Bay
2014 Lee Radzak – historic site manager of Split Rock Lighthouse
2013 Larry Macdonald – Bayfield mayor
2012 Bad River Watershed Association
2011 Mike Link & Kate Crowley and Josephine Mandamin – walked around Lake Superior
2010 The Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society
2009 The Great Waters Initiative
2008 Kurt Soderberg – retired executive director, WLSSD
2007 The Earth Keepers Initiative
2006 Ray Clevenger and creation of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
2005 Gaylord Nelson
2004 Nature Conservancy
2003 Davis Helberg – retired executive director, Duluth Seaway Port Authority
2002 Elmer Engman – diver, founder of “Gales of November”
2001 Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
2000 Crisp Point Light Historical Society
1999 C. Patrick Labadie – maritime historian
1998 John and Ann Mahan, authors, publishers, photographers
1997 North of Superior Marina Marketing Association
1996 Cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan & Ontario
1995 Lake Superior Binational Forum
1994 Craig Blacklock, photographer