AbleSail Newfoundland and Labrador is looking for a host of volunteers to keep its program afloat.
AbleSailNL is a volunteer-led program that facilitates recreational and competitive sailing for individuals with physical, mental and visual disabilities by providing them with instruction and equipment to succeed in the sport.
Since 2020, with Covid slowing down recruitment processes and many of the program’s volunteers moving on due to life circumstances, AbleSailNL President Matt Debicki said the program has been left understaffed.
“When we tried to cycle back up, some of our more stalwart volunteers who were available a lot of the time and had a lot of experience and knew how to do everything — they’d all had life changes and got more into their careers and started having kids — they’ve had less time available,” said Debicki.
Among the positions AbleSailNL is looking to fill, Debicki said the most critical is the position of treasurer, which would allow the program to have a dedicated volunteer to manage their funds as well as apply for grants.
“A treasurer would have a little more to do. Usually, what AbleSail has had is one or two decent sized fundraisers a year, and then we have two or three government grants we have to manage,” said Debicki. “So, it’s not a very onerous positions for anyone with accounting experience.”
Debicki said he is also looking to take on more directors and general volunteers to fill in anywhere they can for a few hours per week.
“We need a secretary again, and other than that it’s just active directors or heavily active volunteers — people who are able to commit a few hours a week coming on the Sunday sailing, showing up to set up and being around to help with the programming,” said Debicki. “Other volunteers may be willing to do maintenance and cleaning of vessels and all that less exciting stuff that is also needed.”
While experience in sailing is considered an asset, it is not a requirement to volunteer with AbleSailNL.
“A lot of the grunt work that needs doing can be done by anybody who is just willing to come in and show up to do some work,” said Debicki. “We usually have one or two experienced sailors around who can teach them the ropes if they’re wanting to learn more about sailing.”
In the coming season, AbleSailNL is entirely focused on regrouping and rebuilding its volunteer base while reducing its activities to a Sunday sail at Quidi Vidi Lake in St. John’s for two to three months in the summer.
“The hope is this year we can get a bunch of new volunteers,” said Debicki. “There have been some volunteers who have been willing to show up over the last little bit, but the capacity hasn’t been there to train them up. So, this season, we hope to do a nice, gentle rebuild with a small amount of activities and have more capacity moving forward.”
Anyone looking to volunteer with AbleSailNL or donate to the cause can visit ablesailnl.ca or email e-transfer to nlasailing@gmail.com.
