HOS ATTENDS NATIONAL
DAN! CONFERENCE
Heart of Sailing
participated in the annual DAN! Conference held October 12-14 at The Hyatt
Regency Orange County in Anaheim California. Executive Director
George Saidah was accompanied by Eric Hamblen, the Program Director for PACE Place, one of Heart of
Sailing’s new partners and the coordinator for our new chapter in Portland, Oregon. The Defeat Autism
Now! (DAN!) Conference is one of the best ways parents and caregivers can
obtain the latest information on the safest and most effective biomedical
interventions for treating austim-related disorders. One of the features of
this year’s conference was the appearance by actress and author, Jenny
McCarthy, whose recent book chronicles her son’s autism diagnosis and
treatment and development milestones through various therapies. Executive
Director George Saidah had the opportunity to chat briefly with Jenny while she
was part of the TACA (Talk About Curing Autism) booth,
for whom she is national spokesperson. Check out the photo of George with
Jenny, who was happy to sign her latest book.
2007-Year in Review
This year has been an amazing year of growth
for Heart of Sailing. Beginning with the
highly successful Southern California Ambassador Plan, HOS has experienced
record registration numbers, unprecedented media interest, and chapter
expansion beyond our expectations.
As of publication of this Newsletter, we are
approaching 35,000 visitors to our website, which is due, in part, to the
referrals by many of our satisfied participant families, who are eager to share
with other families the joy the experienced on a Daysail.
Heart of Sailing also reached a new milestone
in presenting our Sailing Therapy Benefits information at 2 National autism
conferences in Chicago and California. We also increased participation
at numerous local conferences across the country thanks to volunteers who
staffed booths and handed out brochures and information.
Media coverage expanded with features in
larger markets, such as the incredible video of the Houston-Galveston Chapter
operated by Capt. Dave McCabe as seen on Fox 26.
We increased partnership with related
organizations, including PACE Place in Portland, Oregon, and held our first practice regatta as an introductory event with
Indiana Special Olympics.
Fall of 2007 saw the launch of our Evening
Sail Program, expanding our Daysail to evening hours to accommodate families
with children during the school year (available in our regions where sailing is
not seasonally-based).
In our third year we
have had more participants than our first two years combined. Over 1,100 Special Needs participants and
3,000 individuals around the United States and Canada have been impacted by
the program this year. Nine of our
sites, which operate year-round, will help reach our goal of serving 2000
participants in 2007. Including participants from our first 2 years we are approaching
5000 participants by the end of 2007. The
number of locations has increased from 2 sailing locations in 2005, to 6
locations in 2006, and now 20 sites in 2007. We are anticipating 5 additional chapters opening in the Spring of 2008 bringing our total sites to 25!
West Coast Expansion
The work begun by Executive Director George Saidah and Volunteer
Program Director Amber Burton Small in October 2006 has reaped tremendous
rewards with an explosion of growth of sailing locations on the West
Coast. In January of this year, they had
returned to California to continue the Southern California Ambassador program, with Daysails
in San Diego, Dana Point, Ventura and Marina Del Rey. The
interest and registration response was overwhelming, and George realized the
potential to reach a greater percentage of our service population not just in California, but all along
the West Coast.
Upon his return in October, George continued to sail and travel
extensively to set up new locations. He
has been developing sites from Seattle, Tacoma, Kirkland and Olympia, Washington through San Francisco and Ventura down the coast to
San Diego. Thanks to his tireless commitment as well as the assistance of Eric
Hamblen and Board Member Christian Chahine, HOS is pleased to announce the
establishment of 2 new locations in San Francisco, as well
as 3 new locations in Washington state. With these new sites, HOS now has 11
locations in the Western U.S., and will continue to finalize set-up of the developmental sites
including those in Vancouver, British Columbia and Ensenada, Mexico.
If you or someone you know is interested in hosting an Ambassador
Daysail in your area or setting up a new Chapter in your region, please contact
George at info@heartofsailing.org.
What a way to
celebrate a birthday!
HOLIDAY PARTS DRIVE & FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN
Saluting
Captain Dave in Galveston Bay
As the season approaches, we are seeking your assistance with a
unique holiday drive. Heart of Sailing
is asking yacht clubs, sailing associations and sailors to help us with a parts
drive.
With increased number of locations, we have a growing fleet of
donated boats that require maintenance and upkeep. As part of our 2007 holiday campaign we are
seeking donations of miscellaneous parts from sailors. Many sailors maintain extra items which are
not needed for their boats. Everything
from spare anchors to roller furling and other gear remain stored away in deck
boxes, storage units and garages! These
items take up extra space for the recreational sailor, but could be of great
value to Heart of Sailing as they may be useful in one of our craft or we can
auction the items online to raise funds for our program. Each item donated is subject to a tax credit
for the donor for the fair market value of the part.
We operate on a shoestring budget supported by numerous
volunteers who help bring the excitement and adventure of sailing to our
participants and their families. Sailing
is a therapeutic activity that can be shared by the whole family. The smiling faces and positive feedback of
our participants are truly priceless.
Please share the word
about our parts drive, consider us when you clean out your garage, or make a
monetary donation to benefit from those last minute tax breaks.
VOLUNTEERS & DONORS
HOS
expresses our sincere gratitude to all who helped this year, both those
returning and new friends!
A special
thanks to: Guy Konkle, John &
Cheryl Shean, Amber Burton Small, Jim Gilster, Lori Wylie, Kevin Allender, Les
Miller, Christian Chahine, Captain Dave McCabe, Andy Matthews, Eric Hamblen, PACE
Place, Christian & Louise Provencher, Tony Pattinson, Ed Yazbak,
Larry Scott, Bob & Paula Gray, Mike Clark, Sean Murphy, John Winninger, Steve
Miller, Rich Sowder, Mike & Chris Holloway, Nancy Young, Jay Zebroski, Todd
Woodruff, Curtis and Cynthia Woods, John & Gretchen Coyle, Craig Luker, Devaul
Henderson, DADS of Indiana, Courageous Sailing Center, Rose City Yacht Club, Island
Sailing Center, Treasure Island Sailing Club, Captain Kirk’s Sailing Adventures,
Valerie Saraf form Valerieslist.com
SPONSORS
There are many
benefits to sponsoring Heart of Sailing, and several different levels and types
of sponsorship. Learn how you can make a
difference for a child with special needs. For information on our new Sponsor Kit, please contact Executive
Director George Saidah at: gsaidah@heartofsailing.org, or
visit http://www.heartofsailing.org/corporatesponsorship.asp
UPCOMING EVENTS=HELP NEEDED!
PARADES OF LIGHT
HOS is seeking boat owners & volunteers to assist with
representing HOS in the
Parades of Light in the following cities:
Seattle, Olympia, Portland, San Francisco, Ventura, Newport
Beach, Dana Point, San Diego
We
would also like to turn the event into a unique sailing experience by inviting
some of our participants to ride along on the boats during the parades.
little heart newsletter is a publication of Heart of Sailing, a non-profit foundation
dedicated to sharing the joy and therapeutic benefits of sailing with
cognitively impaired children. Contents
herein are for information purposes and are the property of HoS unless
otherwise identified. For questions,
comments, advertising opportunities or other information contact us at news@heartofsailing.org.
Downlaod this newsletter in PDF format
DAN!
Conference 2007