Photo by Richard Rinaldo / Shutterstock

Nothing is more important for tomorrow’s world than today’s youth. Most of us understand this, which is why so many organizations focus on young people in their bid to create change, and why PYSF, the Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation, goes as far as including it in their name. We had the pleasure in May of an extended conversation with PYSF’s executive director, Molly Vandemoer. A lifelong sailor and 2012 Olympian, Molly is the model of transformation that can come from sailing.

Molly grew up in a San Diego sailing family with parents, an older brother, an older sister, and a Cal 29. It was expected that everybody would learn to swim and to sail. She and her siblings sailed with the San Diego Yacht Club’s junior program, until the racing started, and at age 10 Molly dropped out. But she returned to compete when she entered high school, setting her on a path to a college education at the University of Hawaii, where she joined the sailing team, staying an extra year to compete in the Nationals her school was hosting.

She then headed to Annapolis, where she coached the U.S. Naval Academy dinghy team, met her husband, and met the teammates she would sail with in the 2012 Olympics. Coming home in August 2012, with her husband coaching the Stanford sailing team, Molly found work as PYSF’s first executive director. At the time, PYSF had about 50 boats, only 10 of which could be sailed, while the program had 30-40 kids.

PYSF’s core values are Character, Community, and Competitiveness. Prodded on the final value, Molly points out that we live in a competitive world and that teaching competitiveness, along with the other values, sets their kids up for a successful future. Interestingly, four out of five of the kids who come to PYSF are coming from non-sailing families, dispelling ideas that coming from a sailing family, like Molly did, is requisite to being a sailor. It also dramatically broadens the number of kids they can reach, many of whom (roughly 15%) come to PYSF through their scholarship program, a part of PYSF that Molly says is “growing and growing.”

On a common theme with many of our interviews, Molly points to the tremendous confidence that kids get when they take the helm of a boat. She starts with her own experience, recounting when she was given the tiller of their family boat at the age of 6. Applying this wisdom to the PYSF program has led to a strict “No Parents” rule, helping ensure that the kids recognize their own independence. We think this is spot-on and take our hats off to what PYSF is doing.

PYSF expects to serve 300 kids during this year's summer program, a 10X increase from when Molly started. The Sailing Science Center looks forward to working with PYSF and to their June 8 Summer Kickoff!

The Sailing Science Center showed up at the Richmond Yacht Club and the Benicia Yacht Club in the month of May. We had tremendous support from 10 SSC volunteers to make this happen. See the event details below.

On May 2^nd the SSC was privileged to be the featured attraction at the Richmond Yacht Club monthly speaker series. It was a mostly-adult audience, so we were glad to have a solitary youth in attendance to show folks how how our exhibits work.

– Maya Angelou

The SSC needs volunteers! We especially need volunteers who can staff one-day exhibitions as docents. Training, lunch, and SSC logo polo shirts are provided.

Direct your inquiries to info@sailingscience.org.

We start out young, ignorant, and helpless, with few ideas and believing almost anything people tell us. This absence of beliefs and ideas actually matters in a world where things are changing and in which past ideas might be outdated, no longer relevant, or even harmful. Read more…

We want to give a big SSC shout out to Susie Hubbard, Susan Alexander, and Jason Spence, who raised their hands to volunteer since our last newsletter.

We are thrilled with the interest you have shown and look forward to working together.

AI Notice: Generative AI was used in the photography of this newsletter. Images should be considered artistic representations, as opposed to precise depictions of fact.