Miles River YC Foundation Grants... All About the Kids

Swimming grants from the MRYC Foundation have been given for scholarships for St. Michaels Community Center children’s swimming lessons at the Bay Hundred Community Pool, and a timing system and scoreboard for the MRYC Marlins Swim Team, both of St. Michaels. Swimming grants from the MRYC Foundation have been given for scholarships for St. Michaels Community Center children’s swimming lessons at the Bay Hundred Community Pool, and a timing system and scoreboard for the MRYC Marlins Swim Team, both of St. Michaels.

The Miles River YC (MRYC) Foundation of St. Michaels has awarded $24,062 in its Spring 2013 Grants Cycle to eight non-profit Chesapeake Bay organizations: The Gunston School , Miles River Sail and Power Squadron, Horn Point Laboratory, MRYC Marlins Swim Team, Sultana Projects, Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating (CRAB), Miles River Yacht Club Junior Sail Camp and the St. Michaels Community Center.

Founded in 2010 as an independent 501c3 non-profit foundation, the MRYC Foundation has awarded nearly $75,000 in grants to date for equipment, scholarships and general support to 17 youth-oriented competitive sailing, rowing, kayaking/canoeing, power boating and swimming organizations, and other maritime-focused educational programs operating throughout the Chesapeake Bay region. It makes grants twice a year.  The next grant application deadline is October 15, 2013.

The Spring 2013 grants will be used for nine scholarships to Horn Point Laboratory’s 4 day/3 night Chesapeake Investigator Science Program, three scholarships for students to attend two weeks at the Miles River Yacht Club Junior Sail Camp, and eight St. Michaels Community Center scholarships for swim lessons at the Bay Hundred Community Pool.  They will buy a DOLPHIN Timing System with portable LED scoreboard for MRYC Marlins Swim Team, safety equipment for the fleet of boats of Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating (CRAB) and a rigid inflatable boat with trailer for the Miles River Yacht Club Junior Sail Camp.

The MRYC Foundation has made educational grants for children to explore the Chesapeake Bay to Sultana Projects of Chestertown and Horn Point Laboratory in Cambridge. The MRYC Foundation has made educational grants for children to explore the Chesapeake Bay to Sultana Projects of Chestertown and Horn Point Laboratory in Cambridge.

The grants will also help replace destroyed crew shells for 30 student athletes competing on The Gunston School’s crew and at its summer camp, and provide general support for 300 Talbot County 7th graders at the Miles River Sail and Power Squadron’s Safe Boating for Kids program at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.  Finally, they will underwrite ten classes of Talbot and Dorchester County students for educational programs aboard the 1768 Schooner Sultana.

 According to Dr. Sherry Manning, President of the Foundation, “All these grants are about the kids.  We are trying through our grant-making to teach youngsters physical fitness, leadership skills, teamplay, sportsmanship and stewardship of the fragile Chesapeake Bay environment.  We are most grateful to our approximately 250 individual, foundation and corporate donors who make these grants possible.”