PORTSMOUTH – Strawbery Banke Museum is pleased to announce that Ryan Lent, owner of Puddle Dock Restaurant and TOUR Golf & Grill, has renewed his commitment as the lead donor for this year’s March Match Challenge. Through March 31, 2025, all donations to the Strawbery Banke Fund (Annual Fund) will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $25,000, effectively doubling the impact of each contribution. To make a gift, visit StrawberyBanke.org/strawbery-banke-fund.

“We are profoundly grateful to Ryan Lent and his businesses for their continued generosity and leadership in supporting Strawbery Banke Museum,” said Linnea Grim, President and CEO, Thomas W. Haas Endowed Chair. “This matching challenge provides an exceptional opportunity for our supporters to maximize their impact, ensuring that we can continue to preserve and share the history of Portsmouth and the Seacoast region.”

Lent, owner of The Puddle Dock Restaurant and TOUR Golf & Grill, has been a dedicated partner of Strawbery Banke Museum since 2021 when he opened The Puddle Dock Restaurant. The restaurant, which occupies the Dunaway Store on the Museum grounds, offers a “modern Colonial” menu rich with character, along with photos of past Puddle Dock residents that hang on the walls. His newest restaurant, TOUR Golf & Grill located on Lafayette Road, offers the “Seacoast’s finest dining and indoor golf experience.”

“Strawbery Banke Museum holds a special place in my heart,” said Lent. “History is the stories that are told, the challenges people faced, and the lessons they learned. Strawbery Banke Museum is truly committed to telling those stories and sharing those lessons. It is a place where history comes alive. I am proud to support their mission and I encourage my fellow seacoast residents to do the same.”

Funds raised through the March Match Challenge are essential in supporting the Museum’s mission to preserve its nearly 10-acre campus of historic structures and landscapes, offer hands-on educational programming, and host events such as Springfest: A Celebration of Gardens and Baby Animals, Ghosts on the Banke, and Candlelight Stroll. This initiative plays a crucial role in meeting the Museum’s fiscal year-end fundraising goals and sustaining its programs.

Supporters are encouraged to make contributions to the Strawbery Banke Fund throughout March to take full advantage of this matching opportunity and amplify their impact on the museum’s preservation and educational initiatives.

For more information about the matching fundraising challenge or to donate, please visit StrawberyBanke.org/strawbery-banke-fund.

About Strawbery Banke Museum:
Strawbery Banke is a nearly 10-acre living history museum in Portsmouth, NH that interprets over 350 years of local history, from Indigenous history to the present. Through its historical houses on their original sites, heirloom gardens, traditional crafts, and costumed roleplayers, visitors are invited to explore the stories of the families who lived and worked in the authentic waterfront neighborhood of Puddle Dock. As the first Smithsonian Affiliate in New Hampshire, Strawbery Banke is part of a prestigious network of more than 200 Affiliates across the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Panama.

Strawbery Banke welcomes visitors, members, schoolchildren, and volunteers for daily programs, exhibits, special events, and seasonal ice skating. Strawbery Banke Museum is funded in part by grants from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation; the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts & National Endowment for the Arts; the Institute of Museum and Library Services; the National Endowment.