FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Marni Lane
617-671-8332
401-683-0800 x671
MarniLane@ussailing.org
Riverside Yacht Club
Makes Unprecedented Donation to the
Olympic Sailing Program
Portsmouth, R.I. (May
21, 2007) -- The Riverside Yacht Club in Riverside, Conn., kicked off a
successful summer sailing season Sunday
by making the largest ever donation by a yacht club to the US Olympic
Sailing Program. The club raised $143,000 at its “Sail for the Gold”
fundraiser held April 26. The event co-chairpersons Rear Commodore Walton
Alder and his wife, Diane, presented the check to the chairman of the
Olympic Sailing Program, Dean Brenner (Wallingford, Conn.), at a ceremony
for the 119th commissioning of the club.
"We are incredibly
grateful to the leadership and membership of Riverside Yacht Club for
their overwhelmingly generous support," said Brenner. "This will have a
measurable impact on our athletes in their preparation for the 2008
Olympic and Paralympic Games, and we are hoping other clubs will step
forward to help us continue the momentum started by Riverside."
More than
200 members of the club attended the fundraiser and generously bid on
approximately 60 silent auction and a dozen live auction items. As a
result of several heated bidding wars over two different cocktail cruises
aboard 74-foot sailboats (Ticonderoga and Mighty Aphrodite), the owners of
the boats graciously offered a second evening for the rival bidders. The
bids pulled in approximately $15,000 apiece.
Another
high bidding item was a lunch for four people at Edgartown Yacht Club in
Martha’s Vineyard. The meal itself wasn’t the only highlight: the member
also donated a trip aboard his private plane from Westchester Airport to
Martha’s Vineyard.
“As proven by the
results of our fundraiser, our club is committed to Olympic sailing,” said
Gary Ashley, the manager of the Riverside Yacht Club.
America's
Cup Hall of Fame inductee and sailing’s preeminent ambassador Gary Jobson
(Annapolis, Md.) shared with the audience his unique perspective on the
importance of supporting the Olympic Sailing Program. U.S. Sailing Team
members Tim Wadlow (Beverly, Mass.) and Carol Cronin (Jamestown, R.I.)
also spoke about how proud they were to represent the USA at the 2004
Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. They also explained
the challenges of dedicating themselves to Olympic campaigns.
"My
campaign time was split into thirds: one-third sailing,
one-third
logistics and
one-third
fundraising," said Cronin. "That translates into about 10 hours per week
raising money. Whenever you can eliminate time from the last two, you can
spend more time on the water, learning to make the boat go fast and be
smart on the race course."
The
Riverside Yacht Club chose to hold a fundraiser to benefit Olympic Sailing
after attending a presentation given by Brenner and
Jobson to club commodores at the New York Yacht Club in Manhattan
last November. Brenner and Jobson discussed how far the US Olympic Program
has come, while at the same time detailing the challenges still facing
U.S. athletes.
"We are also grateful to the leadership of the New York Yacht Club for
their efforts to help us spread the word about our strong Olympic Sailing
Program," said Brenner.
After hearing the presentation at New York, the board of governors at
Riverside Yacht Club reached
a unanimous decision to hold a fundraiser for the Olympic program and
immediately assembled a committee that organized the event in only 16
weeks.
The members
of Riverside Yacht Club are no strangers to raising money for people in
need. After Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, the Riverside Yacht
Club
quickly planned a fundraiser in which all revenues went to funds
benefiting the hurricane victims.
“We do the right thing
at the right time,” said Ashley.
(End) |
