The Fellows from Falls Church, VA, return to Miles River Yacht Club (MRYC) on Saturday, May 7 for the group’s 17th year sailing from Annapolis on a Bristol 46 sloop. Twenty-two years ago in Falls Church, a minister and a business founded the Fellows Program. Its goal was to equip recent college graduates to live their Christian faith in all parts of their lives: in their homes, with their families, in their places of work, and in their communities.
For 10 months Fellows Program participants hold part-time professional jobs, live in parishioner’s homes, are mentored one on one by mature Christian men and women, and take graduate-level seminary courses. Their part-time jobs (three or four days a week) range from internships with Congressmen, attorneys, doctors, the Federal Government, local businesses, the arts, and youth ministry. Ideally, the jobs are in the chosen field of the Fellow. Many are pastors of churches or have outstanding careers in public service, medicine, education, and business. There are now more than 20 Fellow programs nationally (thefellowsinitiative.org).
MRYC member John Gargalli’s college roommate Bill Deiss was intimately involved in founding the Falls Church program in 1998. As part of graduation week, Bill and his wife Nancy arranged a sailing weekend from Annapolis to St. Michaels. In 1999, Suellen and John Gargalli agreed to host the group for dinner at the MRYC. The Fellows loved it! Getting away for a sail on the Chesapeake Bay, no matter what the weather, was a different and relaxing experience for them.
After exploring the charming town of St. Michaels or staying at MRYC for the Kentucky Derby festivities, they enjoy a delicious dinner in the Trophy Room among other club members. Suellen and John refer to the afternoon and dinner as their ‘youthful intellectual high of the year.’ This is the good life around the Chesapeake Bay.
