Executive Director's Message (Spring 2023)

​Having just finished a Brendan Approach workshop in Jacksonville, Florida, I am excited about sharing the magic that is Brendan Sailing with the rest of the country.  The decades of work with youth with learning differences and the continuing search for knowledge has gone into the development of our Brendan Approach workshops.

Just last month, I attended the Learning Disabilities of America conference where, in addition to presenting about our program, I attended many sessions and spoke with professionals in the field.  Beth Berry, our marketing director also attended and made many contacts with worthy organizations. 

My other focus at this time is recruiting the great staff we need to deliver our amazing program.  I am excited to have several of our experienced campers enroll in a Sailing Counselor course on June 15-16th at our gracious host, Annapolis Sailing School.  This is the first step to becoming a Sailing Instructor for us.  If you or your camper may be interested in joining the course, please find out more at:  MORE INFO 

Our overnight camp at St. Mary’s has been re-envisioned.  We will offer two 6-day sessions.  Overnight campers will join us on Sunday night, day campers will be coming in on Monday.  The first session we will partner with Spirt of America offering other boating and water activities in addition to sailing.  The session will end on Saturday, July 22 with our traditional Parent Sail.  The second session will focus on sailing and will end on Saturday, July 29 with our volunteering at the Special Olympics regatta in the morning and Graduation in the afternoon.  The price of our St. Mary’s overnight camp has increased due to costs we have incurred.  As always, we never turn down a camper for financial reasons and thanks to grant funding from the Kahlert Foundation and the Kathy and Jerry Wood Foundation, we are able to offer scholarships to any camper of need.

We are excited about the Spring Boat Show.  If would like to get a free ticket for the show and have a couple of hours to spare, sign up to work in our booth!  Sign up here.  If I don’t see you at the boat show, I hope to see many of you this summer.

Charlie Arms
Executive Director

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