Sail Habilitation by Guest Author Tim Fletcher

I became involved with this organization a few years ago.  Both my parents were stroke victims, and both were paralyzed as a result.  Frankly, until that time, the disabled were relatively "invisible" to me.  But, when your daily routine is suddenly changed -- a whole new world opens up.  I knew that I would have to do more in my life to help 'people with special needs' -- and I loved sailing.  So, I got this great idea -- how about doing something with handicapped sailing.  Fortunately for me, many people with far more experience were already pioneering this venue -- and by amazing coincidence, a program exists right here in New Jersey -- and not far away at all.  So I got involved in 2006 as a volunteer.  Now, I'm hoping to do more to assist this fine organization. Sail Habilitation was founded by Dr, Stephanie Argyris in the mid-1990's, as a way to help with rehabilitation in certain phyiscal therapies.  Stephanie had sailed Sneakboxes growing up on Barnegat Bay, and got the idea that the very tactile nature of sailing could help people in recovery.  From that, grew a program of holding community sailing events open to all people of special needs.  These events are currently hosted once or twice a year at the Lavallette Yacht Club on the Tom's River in New Jersey.  They are open to anyone with a special need, including the extreme elderly, and their caregivers.  The event generally lasts about half of a day.  Clients with special needs and their caregivers arrive early in the morning and are fed breakfast.  Volunteers, under the direction of professional Physical Therapists, assist in outfitting the clients with safety gear and transferring them into sail and power boats, donated by members of the club and other local sailors.  Clients enjoy some time on the water, then return for lunch before ldeparting. This is great program that needs to continue and grow.  At this time, we are urgently seeking donations to fund this year's community sail, scheduled at Lavellette for Saturday, August 1st.  Essentially, Sail Habilitation needs to raise $4000, in order to cover the premium for the liability insurance required to conduct the events (this premium would also cover any additional events for the year).  Sail Habilitation is strictly a volunteer non-profit (503-C) organization. Every $1 that is donated  goes directly to the special-needs clients -- all other items, foods, docks, boats, management, etc, are donated. Very few charitable organizations can make this claim. You can read more about Sail Habitation here and by Charles Zusman from the Star and Ledger here. Here are members of SailHabilitation "Team Odyssey" who raced the Sonar class for the USA in the Paralypics last year in China.  This is a high profile organization, and much more can be realized for these folks.  More is found on their website.

How to Help

The nonprofit Sail-Habilitation must raise $4,000 for insurance to continue holding free Community Sailing Days for people with physical disabilities or special needs. Although the next community sail is planned for Aug. 1 at the Lavallette Yacht Club, it cannot be held unless the group can pay for insurance.  Those who would like to contribute may send a check made out to Sail-Habilitation to P.O. Box 228, Island Heights, NJ 08732. For more information, e-mail sailhabilitation@aol.com, and the organization's acting president, Antoinette Gobar, will respond. PS: I just mailed a check - Adam