|
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
is a joint project of the Friends Of Belmar Harbor and the Borough of Belmar.
The total cost of this project is estimated to be one million eight hundred
thousand dollars ($1,800,000). The NJ Department of Environmental Protection
Green Acres Program and the NJ Department of Transportation Office of Maritime
Resources I BOAT NJ Program are providing matching grants to the project of
approximately eight hundred thousand dollars, leaving us with a balance to be
raised of one million dollars.
With the help of generous individuals, foundations, corporations and others, we are confident that we will meet and – we hope – exceed this goal by July 11, 2008.
The
Friends Of Belmar Harbor sailing program – started in 2000 as a joint
project with the Borough of Belmar – has grown by leaps and bounds over
the past 8 years. The number of young sailors now reaches well into the hundreds
every year. Children in low cost sailing summer instructional camps programs
number two hundred. The Mayors’ Cup Regatta, supported by Wall Township,
Avon, Belmar, Neptune and Neptune City, a scholarship program for forty children
from the five towns, is the highlight of our summer season. And we have added
a program for urban youth. The fleet has also grown, again thanks to grants
from I BOAT NJ and the Sunfield Foundation, to almost eighty vessels, from Optimist
dinghies to motorized coach boats to a twenty-foot long working barge.
But this growth has its downside. We need to better protect our equipment from the elements and to better protect the students and instructors from adverse weather. We need space to better host the Mayors’ Cup and other regattas, and face future growth in developing partnerships with sailing teams at Monmouth University, Brookdale Community College, and Ocean County College as well as in our current work with clubs from Neptune High School, Wall High School and St. Rose High School.
The solution is to link the Borough’s resources – property, assistance from the Department of Public Works, access to the water – with the resources of FOBH – successful, growing programs, ambitious volunteers, numerous financial supporters—in an innovative partnership designed to benefit all the people of the Shark River area and the entire region.
We are confident that we will raise one million dollars because we are confident in the financial support of our young sailors and their families, the residents and businesses of the five towns sharing this wonderful natural resource, and the corporations and foundations that make their home New Jersey. The Board of Directors of the Friends of the Belmar Harbor appeals to all of our friends and neighbors to make a commitment to the health and fitness of youth and their families by being as generous as possible to the Capital Campaign for the Shark River Bay Community Sailing Center.
Please click on the link below to find out how to make a gift.
