Life Ring Project on Shinnecock Canal
In the late 1800’s my great grandfather Christian Holzman moved to Hampton Bays with the company hired to dig the Shinnecock Canal. This iconic Hamptons landmark connects Shinnecock Bay to Peconic Bay and provides easy access to the Ocean for those who live on the “North Fork”. After completing the canal my great grandfather settled in Hampton Bays buying property on the canal and raising a large “Duck Farming” family with descendants still occupying the original house and lands today.
As President of the Hampton Bays Rotary Club for 2016-2017 I immediately was receptive when Tim Corwin of the Southampton Rotary Club reached out to me to see if we would enter into a joint project with Southampton to put life ring-life saving stations along both sides of the canal. Beau Hulse (SH President), Tim and I met and got things underway.
Community contributions including the materials being donated by one of our members (Mike DiGaudio from Riverhead Building Supply), and lots of volunteer labor saw the project come to fruition. A ribbon cutting ceremony took place on Friday May 19th. Hampton Bays and Southampton members, our contributors, the Coast Guard, local politicians and the media all took part in the ceremony. Nothing but positive comments have come from the community since this work was completed and both clubs have a strong feeling of pride in accomplishing such a worthwhile project. A picture of one of the 22 stations we installed is shown below.
A great Rotary community project that brought our clubs and community members together!
- See more at: https://portal.clubrunner.ca/50046/Stories/ring-life-saving-stations-joint-project#sthash.B3YsyoUc.dpuf