Florida: some say it’s “heaven’s waiting room” but for sailing enthusiasts it’s not a waiting room–it’s a playground! Two weeks ago Executive Director Kate Neubauer and I attended US Sailing’s National Sailing Programs Symposium (NSPS). At NSPS each year, sailors, program directors, and others get together for a series of presentations, panels, keynote speakers, and boat demonstrations. This year was especially exciting because I did a presentation and a demonstration! The Community Sailing Center has been incorporating environmental education lessons into our sailing curriculum for the past 3 years. We teamed up with Sailors for the Seas (MA) and The Waterfront Center (NY) to introduce the different ways that you can integrate ecology into the sport of sailing. In addition to presenting specific lesson topics and organizational tools, we also demonstrated two of our most-used activities while at the Clearwater Yacht Club. Teaching children can be challenging, but let me tell you, adults are a whole different can of worms. While playing a tag game outside that involved the varying use of water in a Vermont town over the last 300 years, adults were sabotaging one another left and right. However, in the end I think everyone understood the activity and had fun competing against each other. Each year, as it gets brutally cold in Vermont and there is so much snow with no place to put it, we head to a warmer location to collaborate with all different folks surrounding the sport of sailing; a whole new world of ideas opens up while attending NSPS. Can’t wait until next year!
