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.
Critchlow Atkins Children’s Center children learn how to swim with the help of MRYC Foundation scholarships.
Following a Mid-Winter Board Planning Meeting, the MRYC Foundation has committed to:
(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.
