The Wright Holeman Shrimperoo, a fundraiser for the Wrightsville Beach Museum of History, returns for the second year this Saturday at Motts Channel Seafood in Wrightsville Beach.
Organizers said the event will serve to boost fundraising for the museum’s signature project: completing the restoration of the Ewing-Bordeaux Cottage so that it can be used as a building for museum activities.
The Shrimperoo, scheduled for Saturday, June 22 at 6:30 p.m. at Motts Channel Seafood, will feature food, drink and silent auction items. The fundraiser will also bring back the museum’s “rocking chair” fundraising, where contributors will have the opportunity to buy a rocking chair for the cottage’s front porch that includes a commemorative plaque that identifies the donation.
“The cottage has a wrap around porch with three sides, so there’s lots of room for rocking chairs,” said Madeline Flagler, director of the Wrightsville Beach Museum of History. “There are two components to the fundraiser. You can buy a chair for the front porch of the Ewing-Bordeaux Cottage or you can buy a rocking chair for your own porch to show that you supported the Wrightsville Beach museum.”
The rocking chairs, made by the Troutman Chair Company from Troutman, N.C., share an interesting history with the cottage, Flagler said.The Troutman Chair Company began selling the rocking chairs in 1924, the same year the Ewing-Bordeaux Cottage was constructed.
In addition to fresh shrimp from Motts Channel Seafood, the fundraiser will feature Jackson’s Big Oak Barbecue, a cash bar and more, Flagler said. Local real estate firm Hardee Hunt and Williams is sponsoring the event.
To finish restoring the building, which was moved from its site on North Lumina Avenue to the museum’s historic square in January 2018, Flagler said the museum needed to raise between $50,000 and $60,000 before the end of the summer.
“We will continue to raise money for interior needs like furniture and exhibits,” Flagler said. “The community has been extremely generous, including in-kind donations of wood, paint, cabinets and various things needed to
With the installation of lighting and air conditioning still on the schedule, officials haven’t yet issued a certificate of occupancy for the cottage.
The family of Chris Stone, for whom an outdoors camp for children in Wrightsville Beach is named, has raised enough to have one of the cottages rooms named for him. Stone died in 2014.
