Shortwave Sportfishing wrote:
On Tue, 30 May 2006 17:43:08 -0400, "RCE" wrote:


"Tom Francis" wrote in message
. ..

I had a great experience this weekend involving some kids, wheelchairs
and parents.

To make a long story short, I've kind of half-baked this idea last
evening and mulled it over today and wondered if anybody has ever been
involved with setting up a charitable foundation.

Anybody?

What do you have in mind?


Well, to make a long story short, I took a group of handicapped kids
and their parents out for a ride in the Contender over the weekend -
it was a kind of "Hey, you have a big boat - how about...." and it
went from there.

I got to thinking about taking some money and putting it into a trust
to build a boat that could serve handicapped people and seeing if I
couldn't get some backing some where so I could actually use my
license for something other than taking dumbasses out fishing.

I was astounded by the simple look of pleasure and the big smiles when
we zipped around the Bay and the squeals of joy when the boat went out
East Passage and we hit some rollers. A couple of parents told me
that they couldn't get enough "quality" experiences for their kids
considering the severity of their "handicap". On the second trip, we
caught a couple of smaller blue fish and you would have thought those
kids "caught" a whale. :)

So the wheels started turning and I'm still at the starting point.

The real crux of the matter is to have a boat built, or extensively
modified, to specifically serve wheel chairs and those who have
limited mobility. I spoke to the MSO at New London this afternoon who
was very helpful and gave me an idea of the CG would look for to
certify a boat that I'm thinking of.

So at this stage it's all just an idea and while it's not like I need
another project on top of everything else I have to do this summer, it
would appear that this might actually be, while a PITA to get
accomplished, a ton of fun.

Up here they have an 'Able Sail' program for handicapped people.
Specially equipped boats enable the participants to enjoy sailing.
http://www.sailable.ca/