Year-end report for the Camp Gordon Johnston

WWII Museum

The year 2013 brought some new developments to the Museum.

First of all, we had 3976 visitors come to the museum, despite our “off road”  location. This represented our best year ever. Most of the visitors were from outside  of our zip code. Many were tourists staying here in Franklin or Gulf County. Others  came specifically to see the museum’s many displays and artifacts. I’m told we had a wooden 1939 secretarial desk and working 1930’s typewriter donated and it will have a working 1940’s telephone placed in its display.

We are proud to acknowledge the continuing support from our many friends and members.

In November we held the 3^rd “Salute to Veterans” Golf tournament.  This two day event has been an ongoing partnership with the St. Joseph Bay Golf Club and has allowed us to network into the Gulf County area.

We celebrated the 18^th Annual “Camp Gordon Johnston Days” event in Carrabelle during March and participated, for the 6^th year, in the Smithsonian “National Museum Day” during September. These two events were funded, partly, by both the City of Carrabelle and the Franklin county TDC.

We were fortunate in September to have a work force employee added to our staff. Also, the Museum has been able to continue providing part-time employment for two employees over the past 5 years. In addition to paying maintenance and rent to the City of Carrabelle and not relying on the taxpayers of both the City and County, we brought in enough funds to cover all operational costs including equipment upgrades and gift shop inventory. We are grateful for the “Infrastructure Grant” we receive from the Franklin County TDC; this grant, along with our donations and fund-raising efforts, has helped us to remain debt free year after year.

The Camp Gordon Johnston Association is proud to be an additional tourist attraction for the Forgotten Coast. Our goal is to continue bringing more visitors to the Museum and, God willing, if we can re-locate to our property on Hwy 98 at Carrabelle Beach (where many of the D-day practice landings were held) we feel we will offer the synergy of having the public beach, the Crooked river Lighthouse, two restaurants and a world-class RV resort all located within one mile of each other.

And while these attributes are important, the historical fact of actual D-Day training landings here makes this site a vital piece of our American history. This only helps the tourism industry of Franklin County and our State of Florida, as well as using education to keep alive our history of American efforts in WWII.

Looking forward in 2014.

                                                       

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