Burlington Free Press: Community Center Sails into 15th Season

Burlington – Community Sailing Center Executive Director Kate Neubauer’s main goal each day is to provide her community with educational and recreational access to Lake Champlain. She has worked at the center for five years and said this is a record year for sailing camps.

“We have grown about 30 percent since last year,” Neubauer said. The center is in its 15th year.

She attributes the recent growth of the non-profit to partnering with about 35 other local non-profit groups. A ten-year partnership with the statewide, non-profit Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports, has helped people with physical, cognitive and emotional disabilities participate in center activities. Representative Maggie Burke was there with a group from The Vermont Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired June 23. “This is a one day camp for them to come out for the day,” Burke said. “In the summertime we are here at the sailing center and in the winter we do adaptive ski programs in Sugarbush, Killington and Bolton.”

Neubauer said the Community Sailing Center provides educational programs for schools and runs a leadership program for at risk youth. “Some of the services we provide are well known, but the variety of programming we offer is not,” she said. “We are basically a community center on the lake. It’s about the thrill of being on the lake and being educated about it, too.”

Yoga is provided on the dock in the mornings and a variety of different sports like paddle boarding, kayaking and canoeing are also offered. The newest addition to the programming this year is called “WAVES” an initiative infusing environmental education into every program at the center, Neubauer said. “While the kids are having a really great time, we are educating them so they can connect the pieces and understand they can’t have fun on the lake if the health of the lake continues to decrease.”

The Community Sailing Center is on Lake Street in Burlington. For more information call 864-2499 or e-mail info@communitysailingcenter.org or visit www.communitysailingcenter.org.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200990630021