Earn money for your church or other non-profit! by hosting a summer sailing camp!
About Our Connections Youth Sailing Programs and Summer Camp
Our Connections Youth Sailing Program is entirely dedicated to providing our Lowcountry youth with the opportunity to benefit from sailing and its inherent life lessons. We believe that sailing can teach youth valuable life skills including confidence, independence, strategic thinking, teamwork and respect for the environment. We believe that sailing can, and should be open to all of our youth, regardless of gender, culture, ethnic, or economic background. We believe that many of those who could benefit most do not currently have access to the sailing experience.
Our sailing events are one-day to several week events organized by Connections Youth Sailing and several of our sponsors in the Charleston, SC area and around the nation. We bring together youth groups from at-risk neighborhoods with sailing clubs and yacht clubs, for day-long sails aboard our boats and club members’ sailboats. It is an opportunity for the kids to experience sailing, the wind in their faces, the feel of the helm, and the carefree joy of leaving their troubles ashore.
We will be expanding this program to provide more events at major sailing venues that hold promise for development of community sailing programs using the Connections Youth Sailing model for Learn-to-Sail Programs. We will seek communities with a strong requirement for youth recreational programming and match them with partners within the sailing industry, local educational institutions, civic organizations, local government agencies and sailors who can help organize and sustain a model program on a local level.
These local events will provide sailing experiences to hundreds of young people and provide the foundation for the establishment or expansion of ongoing low-cost community sailing programs in these areas. Among the targeted geographies are communities in Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties.