Dear Friends of Sandy Hook,

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

As we look forward to spending time with friends and family over the holidays, we hope you will get outdoors and visit Sandy Hook, celebrating its 50th year as a national park. This month, we are pleased to offer a special anniversary poster for sale, designed by Erick Sahler. If interested in purchasing this unique holiday gift, please visit our website.

Meanwhile, come see the seals or perhaps get a glimpse of the great snowy owl. Hiking, and birding, and visiting the Lighthouse Keepers Quarters and or History House are also lovely ways to bring family and friends together.

We hope you will remember the Foundation as you consider your end of year giving. We rely on your generous support to continue our work to with the National Park Service to make Sandy Hook the best it can be for all who visit.

Enjoy Sandy Hook, it's your park in all seasons!

The Staff and Board of Trustees of the Sandy Hook Foundation

Looking for That Unique Holiday Gift?

Receive a high-quality print of Erick Sahler’s WPA-style Gateway National Recreation Area 50th Anniversary print. The prints measure 8.5” x 11”, ready to be displayed or framed.

Your donation supports the work of The Sandy Hook Foundation, to preserve and protect Sandy Hook's natural and cultural resources. Limited quantity. $40.00 each, includes shipping.

Order Today!

The Works Projects Administration (WPA), originally the Works Progress Administration, was the largest and most ambitious agency in FDR's New Deal. The WPA appropriated 6.7 percent of the country's GDP in 1935—$4.9 billion—to hire millions of unemployed people for public works projects. WPA workers constructed buildings, built roads and bridges, and the WPA also became a patron of the arts, hiring writers, musicians, painters, actors and directors for large scale artistic productions and programs.

And they made posters. Lots of posters.

The WPA's Federal Art Project hired unemployed artists to make paintings, murals, sculptures, graphic art, photography, theater sets, museum scenes, arts and crafts, and two million silkscreened posters. Most are lost. The locations of only about 2,000, or 0.1 percent of those printed, are known today. Those two million posters promoted education, the arts, public health, travel, and some served as war propaganda. But a small fraction—14 of some 35,000 designs—became some of the most iconic posters ever created: the National Parks posters. Glacier. Yosemite. Mount Rainer, and Grand Teton, these famous parks had gorgeous designs celebrating their grandeur.

Although not designed by the WPA, keep the tradition going and purchase your Gateway National Recreation Area 50th Anniversary commemorative poster today. Limited quantities available. Order Today!

Sandy Hook Visitor Center (Lighthouse Keepers Quarters) & Park Store

Saturdays and Sundays

10 AM – 4 PM 

Visit the Lighthouse Keepers' Quarters exhibits on New Jersey lighthouses, a rotating art exhibit, and if you're still looking for a unique holiday gift, please visit the park store.

Call (732) 872-5970 for more information

Sandy Hook Foundation Twill Baseball Hats

In addition to the treasures you will find inside the park store, here is another gem you can only purchase through The Sandy Hook Foundation to further support our work in the park. A perfect stocking stuffer, hats are high quality with logo embroidered on the front and name on the back.

Purchase yours today!

December in the Park

1943 Christmas at History House

Saturday & Sunday, December 10 & 11

11 AM – 5 PM 

The Sandy Hook Foundation (SHF) and Army Ground Forces Association (AGFA) invite you to a “1943 Christmas” at History House. Experience an Officer’s house as it would have looked in 1943. Learn about how soldiers, sergeants, officers and their families celebrated Christmas at Fort Hancock in 1943 during the largest global conflict in history. Hot spiced cider and coffee will be available. On Saturday, AGFA will lead two tours of Battery Gunnison/New Battery Peck from 12pm to 1pm & 3pm to 4pm.

Talented and dedicated volunteers worked to ready History House for the holidays

Christmas Holly Walk

Friday, December 23

3 PM – 4:30 PM

Enjoy the winter scenery and learn about the “holly” of Christmas with a ranger-guided walk around Sandy Hook’s 64-acre maritime Holly Forest. Reservations required, please call 732-872-5970.  

Spermaceti Cove Parking Lot (between Lot D and Lot E) 1 mile 

Snowy Owl photo by Eric Thacke

Foundation Receives Contribution from Shore Athletic Club

The Sandy Hook Foundation was pleased to be named the official Charity Partner of the 2022 Jersey Shore Half Marathon. The race took place on Sunday, October 2 on Sandy Hook and was produced by the Shore Athletic Club (Shore A.C.), with support from the National Park Service at Sandy Hook. 

In total, $3,000 in donations were collected from over 20% of race participants, and the Shore A.C. recently presented a check to Foundation President Patricia Alcaro. During registration, participants had the option to make a tax-deductible donation to The Sandy Hook Foundation in support of the Foundation’s work within the park.

"The Foundation is delighted that our work and efforts to support the park have been embraced by the 2022 Jersey Shore Half Marathon and the Shore Athletic Club. Our hope is that improvements to the park, funded by the Foundation, such as the water refill stations along the route, complement events such as these at Sandy Hook," says Patricia Alcaro.

“We were honored to be able to work together with National Park Service staff and The Sandy Hook Foundation to put on the race again this year,” said race co-director Joe Compagni. “It was important to us as a club that we connect the race to the community and to all the great work that The Sandy Hook Foundation does.”

Despite monsoon-like conditions, nearly 1,000 runners came out and braved the elements while running through the multiple eco-systems in the park. At the finish line, dozens of family, friends and well-wishers waited with ponchos and umbrellas to cheer on the racers.

Annual Appeal

Huge thanks to talented photographer Eric Thacke who graciously loaned his beautiful and haunting photograph for use in our Annual Appeal, Over the Moon for Sandy Hook (and who is also the photographer of the beautiful snowy owl pictured above).

We hope you, our friends and readers, will consider your generous support of our work with a year-end contribution, so that we may continue to advance our mission of preserving and protecting Sandy Hook's many natural and cultural resources. No amount is too small. By making recurring monthly donations you may be able to do even more. This year Sandy Hook celebrates 50 years as a national park. What better way to help celebrate than with a donation to The Sandy Hook Foundation.

Thank you for your ongoing support!

The Sandy Hook Foundation (SHF) achieved the 2022 Platinum Seal of Transparency from Guidestar/Candid which is the highest level of transparency. Guidestar's mission is to revolutionize philanthropy by providing information that advances transparency, enables users to make better decisions, and encourages charitable giving.

The Sandy Hook Foundation, a designated

501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is the Official Friends Group of the

National Park Service at Sandy Hook.

We rely on your support and every donation is meaningful.

Please, consider your contribution today.