Ontario Sailing Reaching out to the Community…

     With funding that Ontario Sailing expects to receive in the up coming year we are currently looking at ways to promote the sport of sailing to a greater number of people. There have been a few ideas thrown around by the staff here at Ontario Sailing, two of which I will outline below.  If you like either of the ideas please feel free to contact me and give me some comments and/or suggestions or if you have your own ideas on how to spend some newly acquired money and how to get more people involved in sailing I welcome your suggestions.  All my contact information is below.

IDEA #1 – Instructional resources for volunteers involved with disabled sailing programs

            This would involve the development of a volunteer training workshop for those people involved in helping out with disabled sailing programs. As per discussions with people in a variety of yacht clubs the number of volunteers that clubs have to draw on is getting smaller every year because of the fact that potential volunteers are under the impression that they may not have the skills to help out.  Therefore they do not get involved and our disabled sailing programs and all those involved tend to suffer.

            The program would be available to any group at any yacht club, sailing school or camp and would be run by professionals in the field with many years experience. The goal of the program would be to empower each participant to take an active role in the sailing community and to give them the skills to help out with the provinces disabled sailing program.

IDEA #2 – Instructional Programs for School

            This would involve developing a program that would cater to elementary and high schools. The kids would be exposed to sailing for a variety of sessions in conjunction with the provincial physical education curriculum. The program would be available at participating yacht clubs, sailing schools and boating clubs and would include schools in the neighbouring communities.

            The goal of this program would be introduce the sport of sailing to a greater number of people through local clubs. The participants in the school program would then already have the contact information of the local club if they wanted to peruse their newly acquired interest in sailing. The program would also expose participating clubs to a greater number of potential members.

Each of these ideas has pros and cons and neither has been fully explored. In addition no clubs or sailing schools have been contacted regarding these ideas. Not until the money has been promised and a decision has been made will contacts be established and potential partnerships be explored. 

Once again if you have any other ideas in how to promote the sport of sailing to a greater number of people please let me know. Contact me using the following information.

Eric Cartlidge

Ontario Sailing Program Director

1-888-672-7245 ext. 226

Fax: 1-888-677-7275

ucansail@ontariosailing.ca