livin’ on a prayer

Listen up. Friends of mine have been telling me about this amazing group of young adults for months. Yesterday I met them and I was impressed every which way to Sunday. Help me support the guys of the American Youth Sailing Force. Here’s why:

In their 20s, they are well spoken, thoughtful, sincere, and light-hearted. They don’t interrupt conversations to text. They make and hold eye-contact. They are engaging whether they speak one-to-one or address a full banquet crowd.They speak about the value of experiences that may change a person’s outlook on life. They speak about what it means to be introduced to a sport that requires community, respect for nature, risk, fitness, technical responsibilities, overcoming frustration, and attitude management. They speak about charting a new pathway to a career that is generally closed to newcomers. They also talk about surfing.They are a self-organized, self-trained, self-managed, and self-funded team competing in the first ever America’s Cup youth race. They do have a volunteer shore crew helping them with logistics. But what they’ve accomplished in terms of building and maintaining a team is truly nothing short of phenomenal.They have minimal, nearly nil, funding. For 8 months most of them have been living/camping in an office, training every day, and teaching local kids to sail on their “days off.” For a while they had access to Oracle’s facility at Pier 80 in SF. But the resident old guard sailors decided they were a “distraction” and shooed them away. Of all the teams in the youth division, our U.S. team is the least funded.

At the moment their most stressful financial pressures are 1) a $300/per day fuel bill for their chase boat and 2) food. The 9 of them consume 60 eggs every day. That’s just the eggs. Last night I offered to donate eggs but that got me some weird looks. So help me help them the right way.

Their Red Bull Youth Race begins September 1. Please send fuel/food money now for the final push. Why? Because the next generation does have distinct potential for leadership. How will we respond to that fact?