July-August Newsletter

Englewood Sailing Association

Building Confidence, Character and Community through Sailing

#16: July-August, 2023

LOTS TO SEE IN THIS NEWSLETTER

Summer Camps set New Record

Saturday Sailing in Business

Wednesday Adult Sailing ON

Wellen Park Celebration

Cathy Cross: Volunteer Profile of Month

Finding Purpose & Passion

Fall Youth Program: Sept 9th

Record for Summer Camp Sailors

by Mike Basch

A record 90 students, 20 student coaches and 22 adult volunteers completed our three summer camps this year.

Summer Camp I: 28 Students, 15 Student Coaches

Summer Camp II: 37 Students, 15 Student Coaches

Summer Camp III: 26 Students, 16 Student Coaches

This year we added a raft for the use of our student coaches when they are not needed for direct coaching.

Saturday Sailing Open and Ready

by Mike Basch

How do things happen at ESA?

Someone gets an idea and decides to make it happen. Miriam Staveley brought in a group women sailors from Venice and the next thing you know we have adult sailing on most Wednesdays.

Donna Zowine started Sunday Family Sailing which led Pat Beffel, and Bob Childers to pioneer our Saturday Family Sailing. It just takes a couple of inspired volunteers and a good idea.

Bob and Pat split the duties. They communicate with our 36 members who've signed up for Family and Adult Sailing on a weekly basis with a weather report and reminder. And now they're up to 6 to 8 boats out every Saturday.

Currently the program is run from 11 to 2 every Saturday.

Once the Fall Youth Program begins, Family Sailing times will be changed to 2:30 to 5:30 PM at least during daylight savings.

Wednesday Adult Sailing Now Active

Now that our summer camps are over for the year, Wednesday sailing is now back on.

Members ready to launch

Cathy Cross: Volunteer Profile

by Mike Basch

"I love to learn and take on new challenges"

One of the things I like most about Englewood Sailing Association is meeting our members and volunteers. People who come from all walks of life. Learning a little bit about their stories is why we do the monthly profile.

One of the unique volunteers we’ve had the privilege of joining ESA is Cathy Cross.

Her husband Tim is a life long sailor, but Cathy knew very little. So she decided to take our spring adult Learn to Sail program.

Cathy Cross

Cathy Cooks for Summer Camp II Graduation

Some people take that course and join ESA afterwards. Not Cathy!

She dove right in taking on all kinds of tasks on from hosting our adult and youth graduations, learning safety boat operations, and checking kids in/out for summer camps.

But let’s go back...

Cathy grew up near Winter Haven, FL. She worked at Disney World and was trained as a chef. More about that experience later.

After graduating from the University of Tennessee, Cathy joined the Peace Corp. For those of you not old enough to remember, the Peace Corp was a program introduced by John F. Kennedy in 1961. You don't hear about it so much these days, but the program is stil going strong with 1400 volunteers serving around the world.

Volunteers sign up for a two-year mission to go to another country and partner with the comunity. Cathy was a teacher. She went to Botswana, Africa where she taught high school kids science. She helped open a new school, developed the science lab, coached the volleyball tam and organized transport to their National Science Fair.

As mentioned, Cathy never goes half way. When she's in, she's totally in.

Much later, while working on her doctorate thesis, she interviewed hundreds of Peace Corp workers to determine the value of that experience in their every day life after leaving. Overwhelmingly people agreed it was the most important experience in their adult development.

After leaving the Peace Corps, she began teaching in inner city schools in New York and Washington DC. She ended up in a Maryland suburban school system. She retired after 38 years in the classroom.

But Cathy is also a caterer. What? After high school, as mentioned, she worked at Disney World and took their chef training course. Later in life, she catered as a second job.

After retirement, she and her husband Tim, came to Venice where Tim had been visiting family for years. She heard about Englewood Sailing from her sister-in-law, ESA member Anne Gardner. She signed up for our adult sailing class and jumped in.

How would a lifelong teacher evaluate the quality of ESA’s instruction?

“I was impressed at how great our volunteer teachers were. The lessons are so creative and fun at the same time. CH, John, Mark, Rob, to name a few, gave me such great instruction and supported me through my first capsize experience.”

Talking about this year’s summer camps:

“I really like our model of having kids teaching other kids. Not only will kids be more receptive and open with other kids, the coaches learn a great life skill in leadership and teaching."

We salute Cathy Cross as our Volunteer Profile of the month.

Finding Passion & Purpose

by Mike Basch

"The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you understand why."

And that second day might change as you get older.

Think about our 35 active volunteers, many of whom are retired and looking for ways of paying back in the form of teaching kids to sail, finding their next purpose later in life.

They find purpose in teaching kids the gift of sailing.

Coastal Cruising - Student Perspective

by Mike Basch

Last month we covered our new coastal cruising program from the perspective of volunteers John Riehl and Marie Naisby.

This month, we interviewed two of the students to get their perspective (Nolan Labeau and Vivian Kornrady).

Instructors John Riehl and Marie Naisby and 4 Sailors

"Vivian and Nolan,

"On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 great, how would you rate the program?"

The answers: "8 and 9."

The highlight of the program was the final three day cruise where the kids took charge of developing and implementing the cruise plan, captaining the boat and preparing the meals.

What were the highlights?:

“Being able to control such a large boat”
“Nights on the water”
“It was awesome”
“The experience of the dinghy rescue”
“Great experience of the man overboard drill”
“The whole experience was cool”
“Double the boat size was double the fun”
“It was interesting to compare small boat sailing with cruising”

What might you change for an even greater experience:

“More training on the GPS system and electronics”
“Training on radio protocol and use”
“More time on the bigger boat”

One of the more interesting experiences of the final cruise...

CW Lynch and Kolton Drum took the dinghy out for a trip. They were told that there was a full gas tank, but didn't check. They ran out of gas far from their mother ship. As they were paddling back, a tour boat saw their dilemma and came to the rescue towing them back to their boat.

Two very valuable experiences:

Always check your fuel before departure
People at sea offer help when needed

When asked whether they would recommend the program to other kids: A resounding...

"YES!"

Sailing in the moonlight at Wellen Park

by Mike Basch

Wellen Park, Venice, put on a great fourth of July celebration and invited Englewood Sailing to sail on their lake along with kayaks to add to the festivities.

Our president CH Ritt, who lives in Wellen Park rose to the occasion and invited seven of our young sailors to participate. Prior to the sailing , he invited the sailors and their families to a cookout at his home.

After the cookout, the kids launched four of our boats and strung lights to add to the festive occasion and sailed on the lake.

Great way to celebrate our great country's birthday.

Our kids sailing at the celebration

Fall Youth Program Starts Sept 9th

by Mike Basch

ESA has a great model. Kids spend a week in Summer Camp. They learn enough to know if they like it and want to learn more.

If he or she does, they enroll in the Fall Youth Program as Beginners. Then the Spring Program. At the end of the Spring Program, they can opt to go to a coaching clinic and coach at the next year's Summer Camps.

They continue on this upward cycle and can opt in to become a Jr. Instructor, sign up for our Coastal Cruising program, get into racing or just continue to learn.

Sailing is one of those sports that can be quickly learned, but take a lifetime to master.

There is no better way to learn than to teach others. There is no better way to become a leader than get some leadership experience as part of the child's development.

This year's fall program will begin on Sept 9th at 10 AM to 1 PM for beginners and from 12 Noon to 3 PM for intermediate and advanced sailors.

This year, as always, always offers financial assistance when needed.

Membership and Sailing Activities

If you haven't renewed or signed up for your 2023 membership, you can do it here.

2023 Calendar is Official

You can see our calendar here or on our website.

Monthly Review

Most Activites can be found on the ESA website under "Home", "Calendar"

July Activity

Summer Camp III
Sat Family Sailing
Wellen Park Celebration

August Activity

Sat Family Sailing
Wed Adult Sailing
Prepare for the Fall Program

July Board Recognition

Our Youth Coaches recognized for their support of our Summer Camps
Mike Johnson recognized for his work with our storage sheds

July Board Meeting Highlights

(Your board typically meets on the 3rd Wednesday of the month.) All members are invited.

Board HIghlights:

Discussed Offering an Adult Coastal Cruising Program
Discussed the AED device which is on backorder
Agreed to change times for the Fall Youth program as shown
Edison Sailing is celebrating their 40th anniversary and has invited us to participate in the celebration
Discussed filing a grant application for another safety boat