FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 30, 2009
CONTACT: Molly Dannenmaier
Director of Marketing and Public Relations,
409-765-7834
molly.dannenmaier@galvestonhistory.org

Reflections on a Very Special Year from Outgoing 2008-2009 GHF President, Tom Schwenk

A Year to Find the Door of Opportunity at GHF

Is it news to anyone that this was a very special year? GHF’s setbacks were many; yet our achievements and accomplishments were spectacular. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to serve an incredible organization during very trying times. The things I learned and experienced were life-changing.

Tom Schwenk, GHF President, 2008-2009

When I became president last July, I spoke of helping new people to find GHF’s door. I never realized how many would find our door and ask for help and advice over the course of the next year.

We provided Windstorm Exemption certificates to homeowners throughout the county. We held the first large-scale Post-Ike event: Dickens on the Strand. We introduced new events including a Battle of Galveston Tour and a Recovery Chamber Music Series.

We held our 35th Historic Homes Tour and introduced new “Historic Galveston Rebirth” retail products (available at our shops and our website: www.galvestonhistory.org). Our Salvage Warehouse doubled its expected income this fiscal year.

We opened the Beachtown Coastal Living Idea House to the public and offered sheetrock and paint given by Kwal Paint to low-income homeowners. We offered classes on mold remediation, caring for wood floors and photo restoration. Eagle Scout candidate Holden Rhymes managed the renovation of the Galveston Preservation Resource Library.

GHF staff worked hard this year. In addition to taking care of personal business, and despite the lack of air conditioning or heat, they never seemed to falter. Fielding hundreds of phone calls asking for help and advice, distributing disaster relief buckets, and working to restore normal operations, they seemed to be everywhere offering solutions and assistance.

Our historic ship Elissa suffered minimal damage but the Texas Seaport Museum, workshop and pier were struck hard. Volunteers contributed 2,264 hours on clean-up of the workshop and repairs. They also reached into their pockets at a gumbo party held after seamanship training one Saturday and raised $5,000 within 45 minutes toward hurricane repair expenses.

GHF’s accomplishments generated national and international publicity. Our executive director, Dwayne Jones, held a press conference in Austin the Monday after the storm that was attended by every major news outlet in the state capital, resulting in much needed coverage to our plight. Our decision to hold Dickens on the Strand in the face of Hurricane Ike generated $678,633 in media coverage.

“Galveston: A City on Stilts” a book authored by Jodi Wright-Gidley and Jennifer Marines raised $20,000 in first-run proceeds, donated to GHF by the publisher. The book sold more copies than any other title in Arcadia Publishing’s last fiscal year.

The Cast Iron Architecture of Galveston was selected by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of the nation’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, generating over $700,000 in national publicity.

When I mentioned to one of GHF’s previous presidents that I had no frame of reference to being a president without all that happened, he asked me if I thought I left the organization a better place than when I started. I cannot say for sure I did; however I can tell you GHF left me a much better person. I found a door myself: it was the one marked “It is amazing what we can accomplish when we have to!”

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To view Tom Schwenk's full PowerPoint presentation from the 2009-2010 GHF Annual Meeting, click here.