To the editor:
As we prepare to button up the Erica Lee for her winter nap and shift into our school year programs, we wish to recognize and applaud the many individuals and businesses that supported us this summer season. Like any boat voyaging forth at sea, it takes many hands on deck to steer a wise course as we pursue our nonprofit mission to celebrate the diversity of local marine life and inspire sound stewardship of the Merrimack River estuary, coastal Plum Island and our home waters of the Gulf of Maine. This year, BOAT CAMP Inc. has enjoyed a boatload of kindness and support for which we are so grateful.
Ann Lagasse, Newburyport Development and the Newburyport Marinas team continues to provide the excellent dockage and maritime support that the Erica Lee needs to do her work each day. They also provide a fantastic indoor, waterfront classroom that, to our delight, we didn't have to use very often this summer as a shelter for inclement weather for the more than 200 kids in grades 3-12 who stepped aboard the Erica Lee and Yankee Clipper. (We had great summer weather for going to sea!) Instead, we used this indoor space as a cool and comfortable learning area for the over 100 kids in grades preK-2 attending our younger programs, as well as dozens of birthday parties and graduate courses for teachers. We are very excited to have received a federal grant to provide training and field support for meaningful watershed education experiences for area school teachers and their students.
Our waterfront location is a perfect base camp for this work. It also served as an excellent venue for hosting two adult networking events including a chamber mixer and a local gathering called the chain gang, which includes many businesses and individuals from the greater Newburyport area. Plum Island Pans and Carry-Out Café© together pulled off a great spring event for us!
Newburyport Development and Newburyport Marinas also joined Andrew M. Sidford Architects and The Newburyport Bank to co-sponsor a week of BOAT CAMP aboard the Erica Lee for at-risk teens enrolled in Amesbury's Jumpstart Youth Connection. For many of the kids, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a meaningful connection with the sea and our local estuary. We are grateful for the compassion and environmental stewardship these businesses showed by recognizing the importance of providing outdoor marine science enrichment for these youths.
During the school year, we host free visits from students who walk to BOAT CAMP to see our touch tank and learn about the Merrimack River Estuary. We are always happy to see the kids from Newburyport Montessori School and River Valley Charter School drop by. We also travel! The Newburyport Education Foundation and Brown School PTO sponsored our visit to the Brown School in May to share live tidepool animals with every student.
Each year, Flatbread Company in Amesbury generously opens their doors to host a fundraiser that directly offsets the dozens of full and partial scholarships we award for program participants. Thank you to the families who attended this event. It's a great gift!
We remain honored to co-sponsor with the Cone Family two children to each spend two weeks of BOAT CAMP aboard the Erica Lee in memory of Sean Cone, who spent his summers with us as a kid and grew up to be a local commercial fisherman. He was lost at sea on Jan. 31, 2007. We know the kids who earn this scholarship recognize what a tribute it is to Capt. Sean to share his love for the sea.
Many of our BOAT CAMP families have given their time, talent and treasure in support of our environmental education mission. Adult and student volunteers this summer included Bonnie Bowes, Tyler Brown, Rachel Cilley, Polly Corbett, Scott Conte, Mary and Ian Cummings, Kristin Noon, Madeleine O'Leary, Misty Richardson, Rachel Williamson and Johanna Wilson. Many area businesses also gave of their time and talent, including Jen Wright Signs and Steve Deguglielmo. Thank you!
Also, a huge thank-you to the more than 70 people who helped us with our monthly cleanups of our adopted stretch of Plum Island's northern end. Their hard work resulted in 2,555 pieces of marine debris removed from the island and recycled or discarded ashore. This year, we often found plastic pellets in the sand near the basin, so the plastics are becoming part of the ecosystem. All that we can do to minimize this as a community is important and appreciated. We'll have two more cleanups this fall.
On the water and by the shore, we so appreciate the hospitality and kindness extended to us from the Charos family and their Captain's Fishing Parties on Plum Island, Lisa Hutchings at Mass Audubon's Joppa Flats Center, Paul Aziz and his Yankee Clipper, Capt. Jim and his Lisa Ann II, Capt. John and his Victoria Rose, Bob and Joyce Hartigan of Bob Lobster, the Lesynski family at Merri-Mar Marina, and our most favorite mechanic, Dave Takesian. Mike Goodridge and his TowBOAT/US crew has always been a friend on the water, and boy were we glad to see Jim Whipple far out to sea with his scuba gear one July afternoon! All summer long, kids onboard had a lot of fun watching flounder with an underwater video camera, loaned to us by Mike Goodridge.
Afloat and ashore, we are grateful to have such friendly, talented and hardworking crew, many of whom have been with us for more than a dozen years and have become a part of our extended family. We also really appreciated the kindness offered to us all season long by our family across the docks, Bob and Lee Yeomans and their Coastal Discoveries crew.
Finally, and most of all, thank you so much to the several hundred greater Newburyport families — and even overseas! — who chose to spend a part of their summer with us. We had so much fun with your kids, and were so sad to see them all return back to school. Thanks to you, so many great memories will keep us warm all winter.
Rob and Kate Yeomans, Steve Bloom and Jen Wright
on behalf of the BOAT CAMP Inc. Board of Directors
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