ISHRA June 21 - 25, 2026 — Authored by Gretchen Gudefin

“To wild and lonely spots like these isles, humanity clings with affection; no other place is able to furnish the inhabitants of the Shoals with sufficient air for their capacious lungs; there is never enough scope elsewhere; there is no horizon; they must have sea-room!”
— Celia Laighton Thaxter, 1873

We have recently returned from our annual ISHRA June Conference on Star Island and no matter what the weather, we always seem to make our own sunshine. We have filled our lungs with sea air and let our spirits soar about the open skies and seas and reveled in what Celia Thaxter called “sea-room”! Funny how such tiny islands can give one the broadest scope of life - not only in sea and sky but with friendships old and new and, to echo Star’s theme this year, in all the possibilities that lay before us.

ISHRA, along with Star Arts, You Are You and Natural History Week are traditionally the very first conferences on island each season and this year we also arrived on the very first day of summer, giving us the longest evenings and earliest sunrises of any other conferences. We arrived at the dock under brilliant sun and blue skies but just as we were ready to board, the heavens opened upon us, with storms following us the entire trip out to Star - but once on island the skies cleared and it was a picture perfect evening as we settled in.

This ISHRA June’s topic of study was “The Boats of the Shoals and Their Stories” and perhaps no one knows those boats better first hand than our own Laury Bussey who on a rainy Monday morning kicked off our week by treating us to his fabulous presentation “From Ship to Shore”, an in depth (and often humorous) look at the boats that have been bringing humans out to these Isles even before recorded history.

That afternoon I held a workshop on the sailor’s art of scrimshaw during which everyone got a chance to try carving a piece of faux ivory and in the evening we enjoyed an interactive workshop presented by our island Historian Ann Beattie titled “Beyond Gosport Harbor: Survival at Sea”. We were given lists of items that might be found in an emergency kit on a life raft and after dividing ourselves into teams, we had to rearrange those items on the list in order of importance for survival. The items had secret point values and after tallying our scores, we would learn whether our team survived or not. It was not only fun but very thought provoking and people were still discussing their choices for days afterwards!

Tuesday morning dawned rainy again but Ann Beattie brightened our day with her presentation “Anchored in History” and regaled us with more stories of the boats that sailed the waters around the Shoals including some tragic (the drownings of 14 Oceanic waitstaff in 1902) and some frightening (Celia Thaxter’s poem “The Cruise of the Mystery”, read to us beautifully by Joel Plagenz).

That afternoon the rains let up and we had the opportunity to take a boat cruise around the Shoals on the Shining Star with Jack Farrell and Laury Bussey who narrated the tour with even more historical tales and stories about our beloved Isles, which was followed by our annual boat trip and walkabout on Appledore.

By now the skies were clearing for real and that evening, just minutes before the sun set, we had the most spectacular and ethereal light envelope the island for a brief few minutes which bathed the old white buildings in shades of salmon pinks and hot oranges and the stone cottages in deep russets before the sun dipped below the horizon and left us in a haze of amethyst shadows.

Wednesday dawned sunny and warm - the perfect day for our trip over to the newly restored Wood island Life Saving Station. We made the trip once before, back in 2023 before the restoration was completed so this was a chance to see it finished. Over a decade of hard work, donations and volunteers rescued this once derelict and vacant building and have returned it to its former glory. It now stands as a fitting memorial to all those who risked (and often lost) their lives in the service of rescuing and saving others. Our own Laury Bussey is one of the major forces behind bringing this vision to fruition and we offer our gratitude for his devotion and fortitude in seeing this project through to its completion.

In that same spirit, ISHRA honored Laury the following morning, our last day, for all his hard work and all that he has done not only for ISHRA but for Star and the Isles of Shoals over the years. A large number of his family joined us for this conference and were there to see the first ever “ISHRA Award” presented to him by our current president Ellen Koenig.

Afterwards Ann Beattie read aloud a beautiful heartfelt letter of appreciation to Laury which she had written on behalf of all of us.

Of course the accolades do not stop there. Our conference would not happen without the hard work and months of preparation of more than a few. Our Chair Jackie Heath has once again organized a great week for us, working tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure our schedules are filled with quality programming. Our registrar Janie Lentz made sure we all had a cozy bed to sleep in and Paul Caswell organized our wonderful socials each evening, making sure all the food and drinks were ordered and set up for us.

Paul also organized and ran our annual Yankees Swap and was brave enough each morning to do the Polar Bear plunge (although not able to get all - if any - of us to follow his lead - lol!). Our thanks to our speakers/presenters extraordinaire Laury Bussey and Ann Beattie, to Jack Farrell who expertly drives the Shining Star and gets us where we need to go and extra special thanks to our own Rev. Judith Davis who, in addition to leading our bird walks each morning, for well over a decade now has lead our chapel services with her sensitively chosen sermons, music, poems (often accompanied by her own photos and illustrations) and anecdotes, giving us scope and “sea-room” for our thoughts each day.

Special thanks to our beloved Alice Gordan who although could not be with us this year, once again sponsored our ice cream social; and to all who come to these conferences, a huge thank you - you are all such integral members of our ISHRA family!

Blooper reel: who will forget those middle of the night fire alarms two nights in a row? Or being the very first to see and use those gorgeous new showers only to realize they had no hot water? Or the luggage that got soaked on the trip over, lost its tags and had to be hunted down... oh wait... was that just me? And remember, don’t pick up the muskrats!

And before I close here, ISHRA has some very exciting news for next June! We want to officially welcome Brian and Svetlana Woodworth as our new chairs for our 2027 June Conference! They have both become treasured members of our ISHRA family and we know the conference is in very good hands. And in keeping with this year’s Star theme, we look forward to all the “possibilities” to come!

In Star Spirit,
Gretchen Gudefin

ISHRA June, 2026

“The Boats of the Isles of Shoals and Their Stories”

ISHRA Gathering at the Kittery Historical and Naval Museum