Season’s greetings and a big huzzah to everyone! As we approach the end of the year I wanted to provide you with a quick update on our sailing season and to ask for your help with meeting our annual appeal goal.
2021 turned out to be a banner year for our sailing and camp programs! We had one of our best seasons of public sails with 5,950 passengers nearly eclipsing our all-time record from 2017 of 6,193 passengers. We set organizational records for the number of private charters (73), and number of River Rats camp registrations (327)! These were great results and validated that our decision in 2020 to remain open while following CDC, state and local COVID guidelines was a sound one. The only area we didn’t see a rebound in was in school programs in the spring and fall. As you know school programs are the main focus of the education part of our mission. This year we sailed with only 672 students which is about one quarter of the number we had typically sailed with prior to COVID. Now that more and more vaccines (and boosters) are becoming available we’re anticipating a return to near pre-COVID numbers with school programs in 2022.
This is where you can help us with our annual appeal. For the month of December, we have a $20,000 challenge match in place. That means every dollar donated during the month up to a total of $20,000 will be matched dollar-for-dollar essentially doubling those donations. As of today, we have raised just under $10,000 for the month so we’re almost halfway there.
We’re doing everything we can to position ourselves for a strong financial start to the 2022 season and meeting or exceeding our annual appeal goal will go a long way to helping us meet that challenge. Every dollar counts and a $25 donation will sponsor a student on one of our school programs helping us to meet our operating costs more effectively. To donate, visit our website at www.gundalow.org/Get-Involved/Donate or you can send a check to: Gundalow Company, 60 Marcy St. Portsmouth, NH 03801. All donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
If you have already made your annual appeal donation please accept our heartfelt thank you for your role in supporting our mission. Your contributions are helping to sustain us as we head into another challenging year. Please consider joining us in developing the next generation of river and bay stewards by donating to the Gundalow Company’s 2021 annual appeal. We wish you happy holidays and look forward to seeing you in 2022!
