Happy New Year and Thank You.

Happy New Year!
With your support, we provided over 750 children with their first chance to explore Long Island Sound and the sports of boating and sailing. What's more, we have now picked up more than 5000 bags of trash, restored a 40 year-old abandoned pier in a closed Landfill at Seaside Park and cleaned more than four tons of trash from the shores of Pleasure Beach and the Great Salt Marsh.

We're all about protecting the children, families and natural resources in our community, Won't you please help us before the clock tolls 12 on New Year's Eve? IN 2011, we plan to create a new floating facility in Bridgeport Harbor that will welcome thousands of folks back to the heart of the Park City and provide more than 1000 kids with a chance to enjoy the waters that sit just feet from their front doors. To get 1000 kids on the water, we need to raise $250,000 and to build a regional boathouse for all to use, we need to raise $1 million more.  So we need everyone's help and hope that when you contribute this holiday, you'll make CCB your cause for 2011 and ask your family friends to do the same.

As a 501c3 organization, your contribution to CCB is fully tax deductible and you will see the benefit of your contribution when you visit the Park City, when we build our new boathouse in 2011- So please, dig deep and make a contribution that fits your budget online here today to help us build a brighter future for our community tomorrow.

Many Thanks and Please have a Safe and Happy New Year in 2011-
P.S. We will be rolling out a new website Jan 1, changing our email service and changing our mailing address to 955 Connecticut Ave Suite 10012 Bridgeport, CT 06607- Please note this for your records and check out our new look for CCB on New Year's Day 2011.

Seaytee and the Fleet Weather the Storm

In an act reminiscent of the Battle of Bulge, rescuers crossed Cedar Creek today by row boat to check on the CCB fleet and our guard in residence against rats and mice, Ms. Seaytee Cat. Although the place looks more like a scene from the North Pole, reports indicate no damage to the fleet and Thanks to the warmth and compassion of CCB volunteers, Seaytee is a bit lonely but no worse for the wear.  Heavy snows have made roads into CCB impassable and will likely remain so until significant melting occurs. Please check back for updates as we dig out of this historic Christmas Blizzard and a very special thanks to Susie and Rich and the rest of rescue squad who braved bitter temperatures, icebergs and brutal winds to ensure th safety of the CCB fleet and our little girl.

The Week Before Christmas at CCB

Twas the week before Christmas and all round the Park,  
the boats were all covered and the trailer was dark.
Buxton was nestled in the back of my car,
and the chickens were wintering at a home not too far.
Seaytee stood guard ‘gainst the mice and rats,
 while I dreamed of summer when I’d hope to see bats.
The year at our back was one of the best,
with kids by the hundreds,  but still could I rest?
To reach a few thousand, that was my goal
and I knew that we could in the pit of my soul.
We have a great team, the brightest and best
and a fleet more than 50 with which we are blessed.
Our cause it is good, no child left ashore,
but how could we serve One Thousand more?
It came down to dollars and it came down to cents,
running a program is a great big expense.
And more was our station, in a former land fill.
How can you teach at the foot of a hill?
A hill made of garbage at the back of Seaside,
down a dirt road is where we did hide.
How could we tell the world what we did,
when our flame was kept under a municipal lid??
We needed a plan and we needed it fast.
Next year would be here,  as this one is past.
First to the team, lets call the clan,
 Now Alonzo, And Brooke and Schroeder and Joanne,
On Bridgeport, on Stratford, On Trumbull and Westport,
 Now Fairfield and Shelton and don’t forget Southport
Volunteers and Directors,  Family and Friends,
we need you all now to sail to the end.
The final chapter, it’s time, to bring it all home
to create a new boathouse for the kids of our zone.
A shiny new ship is just the thing,
to serve a few thousand  and make this program ring.
We’ll park it I think, next to downtown,
 in the harbor that’s blank and much of it brown.
Oh sure there’s a future for this spit of land,
 but plans seem far off and not quite at hand.
And besides we will float, where ever we can,
but here is the crux to the core of the plan:
It costs quite a bundle to purchase a ship
and to pay for a staff,  that’s smart as a whip.
To keep the boats painted, the sails in good order,
moneys the key,  from here to the border.
So please give of your dollars, please give your change,
Please become a member even though it seems strange
That you’d think to go sailing when it’s twenty below
In the middle of winter when the air’s full of snow
Cause while you’re aslumber this Christmas eve,
the folks at CCB are rolling their sleeves.
We’re getting to work, to serve every child,
the rich and the poor, the meek and the mild.
And before you can say Happy New year to one,
We’ll be working for all in the hot summer sun.

Do Good, Have Fun Sail Far-Merry Christmas
The CCB Staff

A Floating Boat house-The Final Chapter

It has been a long time coming and on the morning of the 2010 End of the Year meeting of CCB Board of Directors, we're taking stock in where we've been and aim at where we're going at CCB. 2010 has been a banner year for CCB getting more than 750 kids on the water, obtaining 501c3 status and and of course having the chickens and Seaytee join our family at CCB!

But many do not know the full concept of what was envisioned for CCB on that rainy St. Patrick's Day morning in 2007 when I quit my job and Connecticut Community Boating, Inc. was founded. And as we close the books on 2010, it is with great hope and big plans that we prepare for 2011.

In the coming year, I hope to finish the project I started by implementing the final phase for CCB- A floating Boathouse in Bridgeport Harbor.

We've been kicking this idea around now for a few years and we have finally reached the point where it is time to bring it all together.  It's gonna take a lot of fundraising, a fleet of volunteers and a good healthy dose of public/private partnership. But now that even Stewie is taking pot shots at the Park City, it's time that we change the view from I-95 as we dot the Harbor with tiny little boats sailing in the shadow of a big ship at the Greater Bridgeport Regional Maritime Education Center!

For a full description of our ambitious goal to bring Connecticut and beyond back to the City by the Sea- Click here.

Give the Gift of Sailing this Holiday Season

Stumped on what to get that person who has everything? How about a gift of sun drenched afternoons lazily bouncing around on Long Island Sound? Or how about the thrill of waves crashing over the bow while you scream along at 4 knots? Give the gift that covers 2/3rds of the world's surface and dates back to way before Odysseus longed to return to Ithaca. Give the gift of sailing!
When you get a gift certificate for those hard-to-buy-for people on your holiday gift list to CCB this year, we'll give you an added bonus- You and your whole family can sail the CCB fleet for Free! With every pair of enrollments for our SFA or Basic Keel boat classes you purchase, you will get a complimentary family membership to CCB. You can keep it for yourself or regift it to enhance that giving feeling- It's up to you, But your not gonna find a more cost effective way to hit the waves in 2011 anywhere on the Blue Planet.
But you gotta act quick, cause at the stroke of Midnight on Dec 20, this ship sails.

Click Here for more information and class details

Click Here to Get a Gift Certificate