US Sailing awards “Reach Hub” grants to five SoCal centers

BRISTOL, Rhode Island—US Sailing announced six recipients of its “Reach Hub” grants on July 29; five of the centers receiving those grants are in Southern California. Those recipients are: Mission Bay Aquatic Center in San Diego; US Sailing Center Long Beach; Newport Sea Base in Newport Beach; Orange Coast College School of Sailing and Seamanship in Newport Beach; and, Westwind Sailing in Dana Point.

The other grant recipient was Columbia Sailing School in Chicago.

Reach Hub grants are awarded to help grow youth sailing programs through STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) and environmental education.

“The Reach Program utilizes sailing as an educational platform, challenging youth to embrace education, establish a love of learning and explore productive Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) based careers,” US Sailing staff said in a released statement. “Combining educators, sailing instructors, engineers, scientists with today’s youth to provide them with a one of a kind authentic learning experience, giving students the opportunity to apply classroom learning in a cooperative work environment.”

US Sailing’s Reach Hub program is a system of regional networks; the networks are comprised of “Centers of Excellence,” or a sailing center that serves as a “model of best practices,” according to US Sailing.

The Reach Hub program was launched in 2015; the first hub was created in the Northeast. Three more hubs have since been created: Southern California, Mid-Atlantic and the Midwest.

Mission Bay Aquatic Center has been a part of the Reach Hub program since 2017 and, according to US Sailing, has served 8,879 students, trained 29 staff members to be educators and launched 18 new partnerships.

The US Sailing Center in Long Beach began offering Reach programming in 2014. The center’s summer sailing camps reach more than 200 youth, annually.

Newport Sea Base, which is an extension of the Boy Scouts of America (Orange County Council), is in its second year with US Sailing’s Reach Hub program. The organization has reach more than 100 students and establish five new partnerships since becoming involved with the program.

OCC’s School of Sailing and Seamanship implemented Reach Hub curriculum in 2-16 and has since worked with 300 students. One program developed with the aid of US Sailing’s Reach Hub: Skill Development and Science Exploration.

Westward Sailing has been working with its community partners for about six years now. The organization’s involvement with Reach Hub has helped it offer spring and summer youth sailing camps to about 250 people.