Five hundred Talbot County youth officially celebrated their graduation on Friday August 14 from the SOS: Sink or Swim program in a Swim Kids’ Celebration Party held from 6 – 8 p.m. at the Bay Hundred Community Pool in St. Michaels. All the new swimmers earned a certificate of accomplishment, and received a free SOS tee shirt to announce their accomplishment. The swimmers and their families enjoyed an evening of swimming, music and food.

The SOS: Sink or Swim program is the signature initiative of the Miles River Yacht Club Foundation, carried out in partnership with the St. Michaels Community Center and Critchlow Atlkins Children’s Center. In a five year period, the MRYC Foundation seeks to teach every Talbot County non-swimmer under 15 how to swim. In its first two years, 775 non-swimmers have become swimmers.

The program addresses the Foundation’s concern that many children and adults on the Eastern Shore do not know how to swim, resulting in numerous drownings every year. Dr. Sherry Manning, Foundation Chairman, said that “we believe that swimming is a basic life skill when you live near the water, as well as being an athletic accomplishment that enriches every child’s life and builds their self confidence.”

Each participating child took part in two weeks of daily swimming lessons between June 29 and August 14 at either the Bay Hundred Community Pool in St. Michaels or the Moton Pool in Easton.

The MRYC Foundation supports organizations that offer youth sailing, swimming, kayaking, canoeing, rowing and other maritime-oriented educational programs. In its first four year of grant-making, the Foundation has provided $200,949 in grants to 23 nonprofit organizations in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

MRYC Foundation Directors gather at the August 14th SOS” Sink or Swim graduation party for 500 new Talbot County young swimmers.

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The Miles River Yacht Club Foundation, with its grant this month to purchase new Optimist dinghies for this summer’s MRYC Junior Sail Program, has now made grants of $158,694 to 23 non-profit organizations in its first four years of grant-making. It also has established a rapidly-growing endowment fund to assure its long-term operation.

The Foundation is now seeking eligible non-profit organizations to apply for grants in its Spring 2015 grants cycle. The deadline for Spring applications is April 15, 2015.

The Foundation gives grants of facilities, equipment, scholarships and general support to organizations that offer sailing, rowing, canoeing, kayaking and swimming, and other maritime educational programs in the Chesapeake Bay region. Organizations who have received prior grants must wait a year before reapplying for support.

The Foundation’s signature “SOS: Sink or Swim” program, seeks to teach every Talbot County non-swimming youngster to swim. In its first of five years, SOS taught 250 non-swimmers to swim in partnership with St. Michaels Community Center and Critchlow Atkins Children’s Center at the St. Michaels Community Pool. In Summer 2015, the Foundation hopes to have raised the necessary funds to teach 1,000 additional children in Easton and St. Michaels to swim.

Grant applications can be accessed and downloaded at www.mrycfoundation.org, or requested by telephoning 410-921-6792 or by writing Maggie Jarboe, Grants Chairman, MRYC Foundation, 606A North Talbot Street, Suite 115, St. Michaels, MD 21663.

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The Miles River Yacht Club Foundation has received a $7,500 contribution from the Mid-Shore Community Foundation to underwrite partial 2015 costs of the MRYC Foundation’s signature program – “SOS: Sink or Swim”. The Foundation seeks in five years to teach
every Talbot County non-swimming child how to swim.

Last summer, 275 non-swimmers became swimmers in a program carried out in partnership with the St. Michaels Community Center and Critchlow Atkins Children’s Center at the St. Michaels Community Pool. The Foundation hopes to increase that number to 1,000 next summer as it expands the program.

According to Dr. Sherry Manning, MRYC Foundation Chairman, “nineteen people drowned in Maryland waters in the last year, including several on the Eastern Shore. Learning to swim is not a luxury, but a necessity when you live near the water.”

In making the grant to the SOS program, W.W. “Buck” Duncan, Mid-Shore Community Foundation President, said “swimming is a basic life skill that every Chesapeake Bay child should have, both for safety and as a prelude to being a boater and learning to enjoy the Chesapeake Bay. It is also an athletic accomplishment that will enrich every child’s life. We are pleased to partner with the MRYC Foundation in supporting this important program.”

Founded in 2010, the MRYC Foundation has granted $148,694 to 23 non-profit organizations that provide children with maritime-oriented competitive sports or educational activities in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

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The Miles River Yacht Club Foundation has elected five new members to its Board of Directors, to guide the non-profit foundation in raising funds and providing grants to non-profits that provide children with maritime-oriented competitive sports or educational activities on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It has also given $10,195 in its Fall grants cycle, bringing its grant-making total in three years to $148,694.

Joining the MRYC Foundation Board are Stephen Clineburg, Maggie Jarboe, Frederick “Rick” Morgan, Rene’ Stevenson and Susan Wiswell.

Steve Clineburg served most recently as Senior Vice President and Regional General Counsel for Boston Properties, Inc., a commercial real estate developer. He is Past President of Habitat for Humanity Choptank and serves on its Board of Directors. Maggie Jarboe was a National Account Manager for Alcoa and Alcan in the U.S. and Europe, and is currently a Senior Account Manager for What’s Up Media. She is the President of the P.A.L. organization in Sherwood and previously Vice President of the Chesapeake Women’s Network.

Rick Morgan has had a 45 year career as a Financial Consultant with Harris Upham and Company, Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley, where he serves as Senior Vice President. He was a Marine Infantry Platoon Officer in Vietnam, being awarded two Purple Hearts and two Bronze Stars for valor. He has been President of the Rotary Club of St. Michaels, and Vestry member and Stewardship Chair of Christ Church, St. Michaels.

Rene’ Stevenson joined the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in 2009, and serves as Vice President of Constituent Services including Development, Membership, Guest Services and the Member Marina. She previously spent 20 years in banking and nine years in Business Development at the Nemours DuPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington. She serves on the St. Michaels Community Center Advisory Board.
Susan Wiswell is the Principal of Susan Y. Wiswell CPA in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and is a Certified Public Accountant, serving as the MRYC Foundation’s Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair.

The MRYC Foundation gives grants twice yearly. In its Fall grant-making cycle, it has given grants or equipment to six organizations, bringing its giving total to $148,694 in grants to 23 non-profit organizations. Fall grants support five scholarship for students from Kent Island High School to participate in their interscholastic Kent Island Sailing Team, four scholarships for children in the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Sailing Program, an Optimist Sailing Dingy for the MRYC Junior Sail Program, equipment for the Aquatic Therapy Program at The Benedictine School for Exceptional Children, two paddle boards for the Girls Scouts of the Chesapeake and three scholarships for Freedom Rowers for youth rowers whose families cannot afford the program.

Other grant recipients have included St. Michaels Community Center, Annapolis Community Boating, Midshore Riverkeeper Conservancy, Sultana Education Foundation, Dorchester County YMCA/Horn Point Laboratory, Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating (CRAB), YMCA of the Chesapeake, MRYC Marlins Swim Team, Phillips Wharf Environmental Center, Easton High School Navy JROTC, Del-Mar-Va Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Critchlow Atkins Children’s Center, Pickering Creek Audubon Center, St. Mary’s College of Maryland sailing team, Miles River Sail and Power Squadron and Gunston School rowing team.

The Foundation’s signature program – “SOS – Sink or Swim” – this past summer turned 275 Talbot County non-swimmer children into avid swimmers. The Foundation seeks over five years to teach all youngsters under 15 in Talbot County how to swim.

New MRYC Foundation Board members (L to r) are Rick Morgan, Rene’ Stevenson, Maggie Jarboe and Steve Clineburg. Missing is Susan Wiswell.

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The Board of Directors of the Miles River Yacht Club Foundation, established in 2010, has decided to focus on three measurable goals in the coming years to guide its grant-making. In its first three years of making grants, the Foundation has awarded $101,022 to 18 youth-oriented non-profit Chesapeake Bay competitive sailing, rowing, boating and swimming organizations and other maritime-oriented educational programs.

Following a Mid-Winter Board Planning Meeting, the MRYC Foundation has committed to:

Critchlow Atkins Children’s Center children learn how to swim with the help of MRYC Foundation scholarships.

(1) support not-for-profit organizations that provide opportunities for all children to learn to swim with a goal that all children 15 and under in Talbot County will have proficiency in swimming. This goal may eventually be broadened to other counties as the Foundation grows. In 2010, there were 6,542 children below 18 in Talbot County, with 419 children living below the poverty level.

(2) support not-for profit organizations that teach children to be good stewards of the Chesapeake Bay. It seeks to develop a mindset and commitment at an early age to preserve the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

(3) support not-for-profit organizations that grow leaders and team players for life, through competitive maritime sports on the Chesapeake Bay. The Foundation believes competitive water sports build healthy children and important life skills.

Dr. Sherry Manning, Foundation President, said “These three goals flow from of our concern that each year a number of children and adults drown in the Bay watershed because they cannot swim, that the Chesapeake Bay is in precarious health and needs more stewards, and that many of our children lack the physical stamina, and the training in the life skills of leadership and team work, that spell success.”

The MRYC Foundation receives support from several hundred individuals, companies and foundations, and from its spring and fall annual fundraising events. It has established an endowment in order to operate in perpetuity, and a planned giving program in partnership with the Mid-Shore Community Foundation.

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