Hello stalwart Spirit of South Carolina Volunteers!!
First, thanks again for all of your efforts on behalf of the Spirit of South Carolina. now that she is in the water and has completed many Educational Sails, the Captain and the Foundation are better able to realize how we can help out more. This Blog will serve as a gathering place to put out word about upcoming events, link to the volunteer calendar, enable you as volunteers to post some great stories and pictures (maybe even videos??). Feel free to post anything you would like -- questions, great ideas, and any news you hear about the Spirit or the Maritime Foundation.
As we move forward, the volunteers will be able to contribute in the same old ways we always have, but now we will be adding the third dimension of the possibility of qualifying as Volunteer Crew to serve if and when needed underway. So, here is how we all can help:
1. Special events -- these range from the biggie, the Charleston Maritime Festival, to the smallies, such as selling Spirit merchandise on the dock to educators/kids as they leave the ship after their wonderful educational sail (we have already raised 1000's of dollars from this alone). We also will be holding community open-ship events for which we will need to man the ship for tours. Fundraising events also will continue to need our help.
2. Dock Watch and Volunteer Crew -- this is the newest opportunity for volunteers to get onboard and really help out in port and underway as a supplemental crew member. Because of Coast Guard and some very strict safety considerations, this is a serious endeavor that requires completing a formal training program (using what is called a qualification card which is being developed and approved by the Captain and First Mate). To get underway with the educational programs it will require random drug testing and a thorough background check (right now the Foundation is trying to figure out how to pay for these -- if you are willing to pay for you own, please let me know!!). This training program will officially start on September 6th with a session at the library downtown -- stay tuned to this blog for more details as they develop.
3. Office administrative assistance -- the main office has many interesting tasks that we can help out with -- call Jessica Hancock at the main office at 722-1030 and see what is needed.
4. Special Projects -- the ship still needs many things; if you are handy with woodworking or other handy projects, contact Sterling Bryson, the First Mate, on the ship's phone to see how you can help.
5. Donations, donations, donations -- the ship is still not fully funded, so if you can spare a dime, or know someone who can make any kind of donation to the Foundation, then please break out that check book. If you are not already a member of the Foundation then dig down into your pocket and become a full-fledged paying member -- it is not expensive and you get to see the results of your donation firsthand. Follow the links on the Maritime Foundation site and get it done TODAY!!
There will be more to come on future blogs -- for right now, simply email me what you would like to do, or post it here on the blog. Feel free to explore the Volunteer Calendar (link on the links list to the left on this blog) and let me know if you would like to help out on any specific dates/times.
Thanks for taking time to visit the Volunteer blog -- let's get some good stories posted!
Yours in Spirit,
Dewey Teske
9 comments:
Excellent,
I get to be the first Comment! My message is simple. Thank You for all that you do. We would not be able to offer what we do to the community without the thousands of volunteer hours that you make possible.
Warm Regards from the bottom of my heart,
Brad Van Liew
Executive Director
May I make a suggestion that volunteers get a discount at West Marine or Ludens? Maybe a restaurant too? Do we have volunteer ID's?
Just to give Dewey something to do could we have part of the volunteer website have pictures of volunteers and crew with names?
Tom
Tom's suggestion is a good one, My daughter (Darah) and I travel from Tenn. to Volunteer and it would be great to have an Official I.D. with a few perks.
We really enjoyed the event and Hospitality in Charleston, Thanks so much.
After the event I was really hooked and traveled on to Norfolk, so did Joe McGuire grunklejoe@att.net, after checking in and getting our official "T"'s and Name Tags, we crashed the "Ships Captain's Reception" had a great time, I provided Capt. Chris Blake of the Spirit of Bermuda photos of his ship in Charleston, he was so impressed he invited me to stay aboard for the event, he radioed the ship of my arrival and I was given a ride out to the ship by a pilot boat and warmly welcomed aboard by the crew (it was great to the them again).
The next morning was the Parade of Sail into Norfolk harbour and we arrived about 1pm at the Waterside Marina. Joe and I had a great time as we were given free reigh for time and we revisited the ships we knew from Charleston and also visited all the New ships that joined at Norfolk.
By the end of this event I was really hooked and Traveled to Newport and Volunteered there, what a beautiful area.
I must have helped a lot, cause Capt. Blake invited me to sail with them to Halifax, but, I had to return to Tenn. to complete a Granite job by the 4th of July.
But not to be deturred, I caught a flight to Boston on Sunday and a shuttle to Portsmouth and I was back on the Spirit of Bermuda for the Sail to Halifax.
Leaving Portsmouth we were out about 10 miles, looked to port about 1 mile and saw the Pride of Baltimore blown on her starboard, capt. Blake allerted the crew that we were about to be hit by a gail of wind it turned us on our starboard, Capt. called for a hard starboard and I pulled the wheel as fast and hard as I could to full and another crew and I held the wheel till the wind (55mph) subsided. We lost two sails and the dingy was damaged but no other problems.
We arrived in Halifax and won the first place race to port by rigging two storm sails.
Had a great time in Halifax, caught the "Cat" ferry at 50mph back to Portland and flew back to Tenn.
What a great summer, let's all do it again next summer, K?
Suggestion,
When we do tours for big dogs and or potential donors have a small folder where we can put a Polaroid picture of them at the helm or wherever. The card would say thank you for visiting us and have some contact information if they want to donate. T
I have been thoroughly impressed with the professionalism and humanistic/postive (ie. NOT Capn Bligh) teaching style, the paid crew of the Spirit have helped the volunteers learn to help sail the Spirit. Thank you for YOUR help to run a quality ship and a quality program.
Let's have a wish list for the public that is visible to the public and have it online. We have lots of things we’d like for the Spirit. And we never know if the next person coming on Board might have a great connection to get what we need or may just want to buy it for the Spirit. Example: fitted sheets for the berths or blankets or cooking tools or sail covers or wheel covers. You get the idea. T
I agree with the second part of Tom;s blog. A website listing which shows photos of our Board of Directors, Office staff, Permanent crew and prime volunteers would be beneficial. Pete R.
I have figured out that Pete Rugheimer's nick name is Cudda. Nice one Pete. T
And Pete's brothers are shudda and wudda. I always wondeed why he said Cudda, Shudda, Wudda...now I know. Dewey
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