Starting a sailing education foundation for innercity youth.

[gedaggett]

Hello,

My Name is Gary and I live near Chicago Illinois. I have had a dream in my mind for quite some time and I am going to start the process rolling. I went sailing for the first time when I was in high school on Lake Erie and I fell in love with it. I also have a passion for helping underprivileged and at risk youth, in the city of Chicago there is no shortage of them. So my dream is a foundation in which I will be partnered with a Chicago Public schools to teach a select group of youths to sail. Each youth would sign up to partake in the program for 4 years. The goal will being all students who complete the program will have ASA certification, be skilled sailors and receive scholarships to study abroad. The students will build their skills and as they grow in their abilities they will acquire rank and eventually assume the role of captain/skipper in races.
As a part of this My hope is to obtain a formidable vessel to sail annually in the Mac (Chicago to Mackinac Island Michigan). I am a Carpenter and CNC programmer by trade so I am hoping to obtain a project boat like a Jensen cal 25-28, Tanzier 27 or comparable boat that I can overhaul and get sea worthy. I am going to be getting as much corporate sponsorship as I can and private donations will be welcomed to. I still have a lot of ground work yet to do before I start solicitation of funds though.
I have found someone who is graciously offered to get me some time on her boat and teach me the ins and outs of handling a larger boat (she is actually a sailnet member). This is my first steps toward accomplishing my goals but you gotta start somewhere.

Here is a short list of things I would like to accomplish this year. Any ideas on completing these things would be great.

1. Obtain a boat.

2. Crew the Mac race. (i will be posting in the crew wanted forum)

3. Get the foundation legally recognized as a nonprofit entity.

Hope this finds you all well and I am grateful for any input, critique or advice.

Sincerely

Gary Daggett

[Mimsy]

I can't offer any helpspecifically but I wanted to add a personal note. It was such a program run by a teacher at my husband's local school that not only started his love of sailing but also pointed him towards his career.

A caring, passionate about sailing teacher taught sailing to a bunch of kids from the local school in a very, very poor area. All ofthe kids went on to get RYA certified. All of these kids also went to university from a school in which only 40-45% attended University level education.There is much more to be gained from learning to sail than just getting a boat from point a to point b.

Just wanted you to know that your endeavour IS worthwhile and I hope that it all works out beautifully for you and the kids.

[WouldaShoulda]

Priorities??

Find out if there is an existing organization in the region you can contribute to instead of compete with.

Each youth would sign up to partake in the program for 4 years. The goal will being all students who complete the program will have ASA certification, be skilled sailors and receive scholarships to study abroad.

Maybe what you need is to be a Sea Scout leader??

Sea Scouts, BSA

[gedaggett]

Originally Posted by WouldaShoulda

Priorities??

Find out if there is an existing organization in the region you can contribute to instead of compete with.



Maybe what you need is to be a Sea Scout leader??

Sea Scouts, BSA

Thanks for the input I will check into those options.

[lbdavis]

Originally Posted by Mimsy

There is much more to be gained from learning to sail than just getting a boat from point a to point b.

Yea, like getting it back to point a!

In all seriousness, hats off to ya, dude.