August 5-7, 2023 – Cash Prizes to be awarded!

This is a call to all our friends all around the U.S to take part in a fun and unique event. The idea behind this is that we’re trying to foster a feeling of community among lighthouse groups, to celebrate what lighthouses mean to all of us, and to simply have fun.

We’d like people to all dance to the same song, during the same time period. Ideally, it should be near a lighthouse, although it doesn’t have to be.

National Lighthouse Day is on August 7. It falls on a Monday this year, so we are suggesting that you do the dance event somewhere between Saturday, August 5, and Monday, August 7, to celebrate National Lighthouse Day. If you can’t do it during that period, you can do it anytime that’s convenient for you, but please submit your video by August 14.

We ask that you use the original song, Meet Me at the Lighthouse, written and performed by Joe Rivers.

Click here to hear it, and click on the three dots to the right to download it:

If your prefer, you can get an mp3 of the song by email — just email jeremy@uslhs.org and it will be sent to you.

You can also listen to Meet Me at the Lighthouse and see the lyrics on Bandcamp – click here.

When you’re doing the dance performance, you’ll want to play the song using some kind of speakers so the dancers can easily hear it.

Anyone can take part. It can be volunteers and/or staff at a lighthouse, members, or whatever you want. It can be one person, up to a large group. Another suggestion is to get one or more local dance groups, dance schools, cheerleaders, or drill teams involved. A dance school might be interested in choreographing a dance to the song. It would be fun to get children and young people involved. You can also have your group sing along with the song if you’d like. It might be fun to play tambourines or other instruments, too.

If you are dancing at a lighthouse that is open to the public and you’re not officially affiliated with it, please check with the management before doing the dance event.

Although we recommend that the dance be for the whole duration of the song (about 4 minutes), it doesn’t have to be. Feel free to use only part of the song.

We ask that you take video of the dance event and send it to jeremy@uslhs.org. You can use a camera or a cell phone. If you use a cell phone, please shoot it in landscape mode (horizontal).

Videos must be submitted by August 14, 2023.

If the video file is too large to send by email, you can use something like wetransfer.com, filemail.com, or any service that allows you to send large files. The video does not need to be edited or polished. Raw unedited video is fine. We will be posting the winning videos and also editing them into one or more “master cuts” that will be posted on YouTube and other social media.

We will be awarding $1200 in prizes for the best dance videos. The entries will be judged on creativity by U.S. Lighthouse Society Executive Director Jeff Gales.

First prize is $500, second prize is $250, third prize is $100, and two more winners will get $50 each. We will also be awarding a special prize of $250 for the best video featuring children 15 or under.

If you plan to take part, please email Jeremy at jeremy@uslhs.org to let us know.

If you have any questions about any of this, please email Jeremy at jeremy@uslhs.org