Another great year of Better Beaches programs from Nahant to Nantasket!

This year Save the Harbor's Better Beaches Program partnership with the Department of Conservation and Recreation brought more than one million people to 163 free events and programs on the region’s public beaches from Nahant to Nantasket.

Save the Harbor launched the Better Beaches Program in 2008 to help local communities and beaches friends groups create and sustain free events and activities on the region’s public beaches from Nahant to Nantasket, as recommended by the Metropolitan Beaches Commission, which we help lead and manage for the Legislature.

Over the course of more than a decade, our community partners in Nahant, Lynn, Revere, Winthrop, East Boston, South Boston, Dorchester, Quincy and Hull have leveraged $886,668 in small grants received from Save the Harbor/Save the Bay and the Department of Conservation and Recreation with $3,281,200 in organizational support from Save the Harbor and cash and in-kind contributions from local government and small businesses for a total investment of $4,106,904 in 647 free events and programs for the region’s residents and visitors alike.

This year, Save the Harbor awarded $202,732 in direct grants from the funds we received from DCR and raised at the Harpoon Shamrock Splash to support free events and programs hosted by 36 organizations in nine beachfront communities and waterfront neighborhood.

In turn, our community partners leveraged our funds to support 163 free concerts, beach festivals, kayaking and sailing camps and lessons, movie nights on the beach, story hours, bicycle rides to the beach, and sand sculpting competitions that brought over one million people to our region’s public beaches in 2018.

Save the Harbor and DCR brought “Life’s a Beach” festival programming to 8 events in the summer and fall. This programming enriched events hosted by Better Beaches grantees by bringing acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, and stiltwalkers from the Boston Circus Guild, storytelling pirates, art on the shore with Artist-in-Residence Robyn Reed as well as visiting artist Andres Amador, and enrichment from our Youth Environmental Education Program staff.

We have been delighted to watch over the last decade as these free programs have become an important part of the community calendar, and a meaningful experience for the communities we serve. We have witnessed countless people, both youth and adults, make the first connection to the water that creates the environmental stewards we need to help protect the public’s $5 billion investment in the Boston Harbor clean-up.

The Better Beaches Program is a powerful way to share the benefits of the Boston Harbor cleanup with kids and families from all of Boston’s neighborhoods and with the nearly 2 million regional residents who live within a short ride or drive to the beach.

Planning for the 2019 season is already underway, and we are pleased to report that the Legislature and the Baker-Polito Administration included funds to support the program in the budget again this year.

Save the Harbor would like to thank the Department of Conservation and Recreation and our Better Beaches Program sponsors, Harpoon Brewery, JetBlue, and the Boston Circus Guild, and the hundreds of participants and donors to the Harpoon Shamrock Splash, which has raised more than $250,000 to support free beach events since it began in 2011.

We would also like to thank our policy and program partners at The Boston Foundation, the Richard Saltonstall Charitable Foundation, P&G Gillette, National Grid, Comcast, Beacon Capital Partners, New England Picture, Mix 104.1, Boston Centers for Youth & Families, The YMCA of Greater Boston, The Daily Catch Seaport, Baja Taco Truck, and the Blue Sky Collaborative for their support.

All of us at Save the Harbor/Save the Bay hope you will join us at the Harpoon Shamrock Splash in March at M Street Beach at the BCYF Curley Community Center. We intend to crush last year’s record and raise more than $55,000 for free beach events and programs in 2019 at the event. Visit www.shamrocksplash.org for more information.

See you on the beach!

Save the Harbor would like to thank our program and policy partners and event sponsors: the Department of Conservation & Recreation, Harpoon Brewery, JetBlue, The Boston Foundation, the Richard Saltonstall Charitable Foundation, P&G Gillette, National Grid, Comcast, Beacon Capital Partners, New England Picture, Mix 104.1, Boston Centers for Youth & Families, The YMCA of Greater Boston, The Daily Catch Seaport, Baja Taco Truck, and the Blue Sky Collaborative for their support.