WYC Youth Foundation held its annual Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser this past weekend with sail racing team and instructors serving delicious spaghetti and garlic bread to attendees who participated in auctions and purchased $10 tickets to win a 55″ Smart TV. The television drawing will occur at the end of the Chicago to Waukegan event – need not be present to win.
Although US Sailing has an excellent record for youth safety and the Junior SAIL program follows the requirements set out by their instruction programs – to require Level 1 certifications for instructor staff, the cost of insurance has more than doubled in the last three years. If you are able to make a donation, please do so on their website and check with your employer to determine if matching funds are available. https://juniorsail.org/donations-fundraising/
The Junior SAIL program in Waukegan has a history of producing self-sufficient sailors, national/North American/World champion sail racers, and prominent leaders in the sailing community, including a coach at the US Naval Academy!
In order to manage attention span drift, many programs operate with their focus primarily on entertainment and cancel classes when there are waves or rainy conditions. With our large sheltered harbor, Junior sailors get a broad experience for wind conditions and use foul weather rain jackets, not letting summer rain spoil the fun, and went Lake Michigan presents them with conditions that will not allow sailing, then they take advantage of the opportunity to learn weather safety lessons in the surrounding harbor, physics and fluid mechanics with STEM modules, and advanced topics that many master mariners wish they had been introduced to as kids.
WYCYF JuniorSAIL graduates who raced for their college teams (most recently at Purdue and Marquette’s National champions) report that they were made leaders as underclassmen and women, because they could solve problems and repair rigging. They learned how to assemble the standing rigging and do maintenance checks in the Waukegan Junior SAIL program, while many of their college peers had not even learned how to rig sails or adjust them for wind forecasts.
Families who have programs closer to their homes drive their kids to Waukegan or put them on the Northbound train where instructors meet them at the start of the day and return them to head home (as if Metra set their schedule with JuniorSAIL classes in mind). Their kids prefer Waukegan, because the program is built on the expectation that they can and will learn to do great things!
The cost of insurance is testing the resilience of this time tested program, and I ask you to join me in donating if you can. If you cannot, please consider sharing their information with people in your network and neighborhood and with corporations that may be willing to donate or consider sponsorship to help defray these costs. Thank you so much for your consideration!
Sincerely,
Nikki Sullivan
Commodore, Waukegan Yacht Club
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