Message From Our President: Making Waves for 30 Years!

Early this month Save the Harbor/Save the Bay celebrated our 30th Anniversary Year with a sunset cruise to Boston Light. As we looked back toward the city with our public, private and non-profit partners and friends and supporters, we couldn’t help but think back on all we have accomplished together since 1986, and all that’s left for us to do.

We are proud of our role as the region’s leading voice for clean water and continued investment in Boston Harbor, our region’s public beaches, and beachfront communities and waterfront neighborhoods from Nahant to Nantasket. Working together we have transformed Boston Harbor from a liability into a source of opportunity and pride for Bostonians and the region’s residents.

Today South Boston is home to the cleanest urban beaches in America, which were safe for swimming every day in 2015, when frequent storms forced other area beaches to close. The Boston Harbor Islands have become educational and recreational resources for a generation of young people. Boston’s renewed waterfront and the region’s public beaches from Nahant to Nantasket are emerging as destinations for residents and visitors alike.

However, there is still much more work to do to restore and protect Boston Harbor, the beaches, our waterfront and the Boston Harbor Islands and share them with all the region’s families.  

I am writing to you today because we need your help and support to do it.

The first thing we need to do this year is to keep our commitment to clean water by working with the Baker-Polito Administration, our Beaches Science Advisory Committee and local officials to produce site-specific plans to address the ongoing pollution problems at King’s Beach in Lynn and Swampscott and Tenean Beach in Dorchester as we did in South Boston. Last summer these two beaches were closed once every four days, an unacceptable situation which we intend to address.

The second is to expand our free youth and beach programs, which have made Save the Harbor the Boston Harbor Connection for 130,000 young people and their families since we began them in 2002.

With your support, in 2016 we will offer 30 free All Access Boston Harbor trips to the Boston Harbor Islands for underserved youth and teens from more than 100 youth development and community groups in 40 communities.  We will also host free environmental education and enrichment programs at 30 Better Beaches Program events, and at 8 program sites including our new Boston Harbor Explorers Program @ DCR’s Carson Beach in South Boston, which we helped make the cleanest urban beach in the nation.

Your support will allow us to make our Carson Beach pilot program a permanent anchor site for our Boston Harbor Explorers program, offering thousands of young participants an opportunity to engage in an environmental education curriculum with environmental exploration, healthy outdoor activities and other youth enrichment opportunities that include free swimming, paddle boarding and kayaking lessons, fishing and clamming, storytelling, archaeology and art on the shore. 

With your help, we hope to raise $30,000 this summer, so that we can expand our youth environmental education and enrichment programs to serve more than 30,000 youth and teens in 2016. 

I know that you care about our community, that you love Boston Harbor, the waterfront, the harbor islands and our region's public beaches.  I also know that you understand and value the work we have done and the work we intend to do. 

Your contribution of $30, $300, $3,000, or whatever you can afford to give, will help us continue our work to restore and protect these spectacular urban natural resources and share them with the public, for everyone to enjoy. Its easy to make a contribution today on our website at www.savetheharbor.org

Thanks in advance for your support. It means the world to us and to the region’s underserved youth, teens and families, who all deserve clean beaches they can call their own.

Sincerely,

Patricia A. Foley

President 

P.S. There will be lots of opportunities to celebrate our 30th Anniversary with us this summer. To find out more, read our Boston Harbor Blog “Sea, Sand & Sky” at www.blog.savetheharbor.org, join savetheharbor and bostonharbor on Facebook and follow @savetheharbor on Twitter and #savetheharbor on Instagram.

P.P.S. It’s easy to make a contribution today on our website, or, if you prefer you can mail your check to:

Save the Harbor/Save the Bay
Boston Fish Pier
212 Northern Avenue, Suite 304 West
Boston MA 02210 United States