About

The Sea Glass Center is a nonprofit corporation organized in the state of Maine. Our mission is to educate the world about all aspects of sea glass and to preserve a world-class collection for the public to explore and enjoy.

Whether you call these artifacts sea glass, beach glass, mermaid tears or lake glass, if you have walked a beach and found one of these gems, you are hooked. You want to know more about them--like what did the sea glass piece come from? How did it end up in the water? How long has it been in the water?

These are questions we've asked ourselves countless times as collectors, and we are ready to find the answers and share them with the public through an interactive, traveling sea glass museum exhibit. Our traveling exhibit will give everyone the opportunity to learn more about sea glass, its beauty and history at venues close to your home, such as history and science museums, aquariums, educational centers, libraries and festivals. Here's some more specific information on our project and us:

Sea glass, also called beach glass, is glass that somehow ended up in a body of water, such as an ocean, lake, or even a river, and has lived in that body of water for years, decades, sometimes even maybe a century or more, and because of this existence, has taken on a form different than what it originally was when it entered the water. This is due to elements such as waves, rocks, sand, storms, the sun, sea creatures, tidal patterns, coastlines and so forth. Sea glass can eventually make its way back to land where it is washed up on our shores with a different appearance than when it entered the water. That’s where beauty, passion and excitement enter the picture!

Here are a few examples:

A wine bottle tossed over a ship in the 1920’s after a night of fun and dancing during a trans-Atlantic voyage may now wash up on a beach in Connecticut or New Jersey as a very smooth quarter-sized piece of frosted olive green colored glass.

An old jar of Noxzema from the 1950’s that ended up in a landfill near the water may resurface as a frosted piece of a bottle bottom where you see the letters “EA” on it.

A shiny marble that was tossed into the waves by a little girl making a summer vacation wish will make its way back to land as a tiny colorful and frosted rainbow ball only to be found by another little girl decades later during her summer vacation.

There are no limits as to what color, shape or size of sea glass (or even pottery, porcelain, clay or metal) you may find. Each piece is a treasure to the person that finds it and each piece has a story to tell. It is our goal to share the rich history of sea glass with the world so everyone can enjoy its beauty and history.

Why us? We are lovers of sea glass, we have hunted for it and it has been part of our lives for decades, whether for the excitement of finding it, the pure enjoyment of collecting it or for our art or livelihoods. It is part of who we are and defines each of our everyday lives in some way! Collectively, we have extensive backgrounds in managing all aspects of a business, including small business and nonprofit management. We have decades of fundraising, grant writing, museum work, advertising and marketing, as well as experience with navigating through different social media platforms, professional photography and even work in film. We are ready to make our dream a reality.

Although we’ve been involved with sea glass in some way, shape or form for years and years, we recently founded The Sea Glass Center, Inc. so we may realize our collective dream and move forward in a more formal way. Our goal is to capture, preserve and share the beauty and historical significance of sea glass with the general public before it disappears from the earth! We will do this by creating a one-of-a-kind world-class museum quality traveling exhibit that will explore and present the beauty and historical significance of sea glass, where it is found, how it is formed. We will not only focus on the art of sea glass, but the items that formed them and how they may have ended up in the oceans, lakes or rivers. We will explain what roles the tide, current, surf and sun play in making these treasured artifacts.

Sea glass collecting has been a hobby of many for generations and generations. There is nothing more exciting than spotting that “piece of sparkling treasure” as you comb the beach, tucking it in your pocket and taking it home to wash off and throw into a jar for you, your family and visitors to admire time and time again. This hobby has become more and more popular in recent years with enthusiasts and newbies alike. There are now published books about sea glass and its beauty, annual festivals celebrating sea glass being held all over the country and the world, countless storefronts with sea glass artisan jewelry popping up in coastal resort towns, websites, Etsy pages and Ebay auctions boasting the rarest finds made into stunning pieces of art and jewelry… And the list goes on. There is even fake sea glass out there now, with people using rock tumblers to try and replicate one of a kind gems.

Genuine, surf tumbled sea glass is getting harder and harder to find and we are afraid it is quickly becoming a pastime of the past for many reasons. Here are some:

Plastic is being used much more than glass these days. For instance, decades ago, thousands upon thousands of Coca Cola bottles were ending up in our waters, being broken down and polished by the surf and ending up on the beach (and in our collections). Now Coca Cola and other beverage bottlers use plastic bottles...

More and more people have discovered sea glass! Years ago, you'd maybe find one or two other beach combers searching for the same treasure, but nowadays, it's not uncommon to be elbow to elbow with a dozen other enthusiasts fighting for that one piece of red that catches your (and everyone else's) eye.

Companies aren't producing such ornate pieces of glass or bottles for perfumes, dishes, even medicines anymore. It's just not economical.

Green is good. People are recycling and being more conscious about not throwing refuse into our waterways and oceans (this isn't a bad thing for the earth and we are 100% for it!)

We want to educate and delight the world with all the wonders of sea glass. We want and need your help and input to make it happen!

We need your donations of museum quality pieces of glass.

We cannot travel the world over (as much as we would love to ) to get sea glass from every corner of the world. This would take years and years. If collectors from around the globe share a small portion of their prized collections with us, we will have a massive collection that will capture the awe and interest of everyone who sees it.

We need your donations of money!

The average museum exhibit costs $250 a square foot to create. Multiply that by 1,000 to 2,000 square feet and you can see that we need a substantial amount of funding.

We need you to share our dream with your family and friends.

Word of mouth is the best way to drum up support. We need the excitement to build! We need to preserve the beauty and historical significance of sea glass before it disappears from the earth!

We need your input.

Let us know what you would like to see in the exhibit.

By the way, we have for you some, as they say in Maine, wicked awesome rewards for donating to our project.

Please read all of the descriptions and choose one that delights you. After you pick one, please share it with your family friends via email, Facebook, Twitter, or word of mouth. We have ordered our rewards from local vendors and will have them all in hand when the funds reach our bank account. We will waste no time when it comes to shipping out all rewards. We want you to be happy with your experience.

We will be offering an exclusive stretch reward if we surpass our goal.

If we reach $100k in funding, all backers who have donated $50 or more to our project will also receive a custom made beach combing bag.

Thank you for your time, consideration, and support. The Sea Glass Center Team!

A Little More Information About The People Behind the Mission

We are a talented and passionate group of individuals who are bonded by a love of sea glass. We are committed to bringing our unique experience and expertise to the table to create a legacy of love and appreciation for sea glass and all its aspects through this dream we share-- of preserving the pastime that we love and sharing it with the world.

Danielle Perreault, Executive Director

Danielle is a true collector and lover of sea glass. Her collection is vast and contains some of the rarest pieces of sea glass you will ever see. She loves sea glass so much that she has made a successful business out of it. Danielle is President and CEO of The Deep Blue, Inc., a sea glass jewelry and gift shop located in Kennebunk, Maine. The Deep Blue was opened in 2007. At the shop you can find hand crafted sea glass jewelry, sea glass art, bottles of sea glass, drilled sea glass, books, calendars, cards, and a beach combing bag designed by Danielle herself. Prior to opening the shop, Danielle has worked as a tax paralegal, practice manager, quality specialist, and project manager. She is a certified project management professional, certified lead internal auditor of quality systems. She is also a numbers guru. With her proven business success and experience, she is a great person to have at the helm of the ship! She will continue to innovate and seek out new opportunities to continue to grow the organization and further our mission.

Aimee Thorman, Director of Operations

Aimee has searched for and collected sea glass for most of her life! She has been making art out of what she finds and selling it at festivals or giving it as gifts for almost 20 years--she even puts it in her flower beds! She is ready to take things to the next level and blend her lifelong passion with her career expertise. She has worked in the nonprofit sector all of her adult life and is a successful director, manager, marketer, grant writer and fundraiser. She has experience working at a museum in Cleveland, OH for many years, as well as experience in arts and social service organizations and running special events. She has specific experience with marketing and fundraising for traveling museum exhibits, securing corporate sponsorships and extensive and successful grant writing experience in this field. During the course of her fundraising career, she has successfully raised millions from federal and state grant programs, private and corporate foundations, private individuals and special events. She also has extensive experience in securing major gifts from individual donors. She will work tirelessly to ensure that donor dollars go to further the mission of the organization and that the organization continues to grow and thrive so more people may benefit from its purpose!

Other Major Players

We have many other people involved in making this project happen. These people collectively have decades of experience in management, social media, film, photography, advertising (print, radio, television), web development, membership and marketing in a museum setting, research, creation of educational programs, and the list goes on. We are commercial members of the North American Sea Glass Association and they have representation on our Advisory Board as well. We are also in talks with several museums and should know before too long where our exhibit launch party will be held! Stay tuned to our updates for more details!

Did Someone Say Corporate Sponsorship?

You can also find this information directly on our website. We will operate very transparently. We will continue to update this information on our website, making full disclosure is important to us. We understand, as a nonprofit, that the money we will be operating with belongs to the public. We will take care of the funds entrusted to us as we take our fiduciary duties very seriously.

The Sea Glass Center - Balance Sheet as of January, 2014

IRS From 1023, (contains projected budgets and all financial arrangements)

IRS Form SS-4

The Sea Glass Center - Conflict of Interest Policy

Articles of Incorporation issued by the State of Maine

Reward Images

UV Flashlight for $25 Donation (Check your sea glass collection to see if you have any rare pieces that fluoresce.)

Rarity Chart for T-Shirt $20 Donation Level and $10 Donation Level (The back of the rarity chart has valuable information on the rarity of sea glass!)