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Press Release
Sea Quest Kids Go Medical
For Immediate Release
Date: December 9, 2003
Event: Sea Quest Kids, the little league of boating at the 1st Annual Christmas Party at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, New York City
Event Date: Monday, December 15, 2003
Time: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Location: Children's Hospital at Montefiore
Contact: Advance America Foundation Sea Quest Kids: Steve Gronka at 404-434-0660 or E-mail: sgronka@cs.com. Information on the Web at www.advanceaf.org
Copy: The Children's Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx in New York City will be the sight of one of the wildest sights that you will ever see! It will be an inner city boat building Christmas Party for 400 kids in the children's wards on Monday, December 15. Nothing like boat building therapy and education for kids to put more spark in the rehabilitative and healing juices to speed the recovery process. Apparently this is a first in both medical and marine industry history!
And what better place for such innovative therapy than the Montefiore Medical Center that employs more than 10 alumni of the State University of New York (Merchant Marine) Maritime College at Fort Schuyler. Also the Director of Operations at Montefiore is an alumnus of Kings Point Maritime College, the Annapolis of the Merchant Marine Industry.
Monte Kids will be building two Sea Quest 100 scow-skiffs under the direction Sea Quest Kids, the little league of boating. Said Sea Quest Kids Fearless Leader, Steve Gronka, "Building the Sea Quest 100's will be the inauguration of the little league of boating in the Bronx. Our organization, Advance America Foundation Sea Quest Kids is honored to partner with one of the outstanding medical facilities to be found anywhere." We are excited to be with such forward thinking leaders in the medical profession who have instituted the Carl Sagan Science Program for kids at their hospital!
The Children's Hospital at Montefiore is also committed to seeing the Sea Quest Kids program take hold not only as a therapy and education program for kids at the hospital, but also as a great recreation and education activity for kids in the Bronx and around New York City. To that end Gronka will be meeting with regional director of the Boy Scouts Of America and various leaders of children's programs in the Bronx.
The Children's Hospital at Montefiore undertaking Sea Quest Kids boat building at its 1st Annual Christmas party has fired up the imagination and Christmas spirit of the United States Power Squadron. Yeoman's effort by Staff Commander Roberta Dougherty, and her aide de campe, Jeanne Sangiorgio, has resulted in the United States Power Squadron taking a serious look at Sea Quest Kids. Led by none other than Chief Commander Theodore H. Smith, a contingent of national Power Squadron leaders will be on hand to help the Monte Kids build their Sea Quest 100s. Said Commander Smith, " I am not just coming up there to stand by and observe! I want to work with the kids building the boats!" Commander Smith will also be touring the hospital to visit children not well enough to come to the party. Gronka says, "You can tell Commander Smith is really about the kids. He has true caring in his heart! He's our kind of guy! You can bet on this, he will be on his hands and knees with the rest of us poundin' nails, drivin' screws, and puttin' on the glue!."
Chief Commander Smith is also taking this occasion to honor Steve Gronka and Sea Quest Kids fourteen years of work in the Marine Industry in the field of boat building and boating and water safety for kids. Says Gronka, "We are humbled to receive this high honor and recognition from such a distinguished Marine Industry organization as the United States Power Squadron! USPS is so rich in maritime tradition and history and has a preeminent place in the teaching of seamanship, navigation, and boating safety. We look forward to a long and fruitful future of working together with the United States Power Squadron to make a place of significance for kids participating in boating and the Marine Industry!"
The Power Squadron with the help of MetLife is also donating coloring books and t-shirts to be given to all the kids at the party.
Also attending will be Formula Boats Racing Team of Tom Caruso, owner of Total Marine, and Carl Saitta, owner of Roger & Sons Food Service Equipment and Supplies. They will be giving Formula gift items to all of the kids! Additionally one of Sea Quest Kids sponsors, Montano Candy/Montano-Hartmann Motorsports will be donating Christmas Candy for over 400 Monte Kids. Advance America Foundation Advisory Board Member and US Navy League and West Point Society life member, George Kearns will be on hand as well to help make sure the kids all get their gifts. Advance America Foundation Board Member and Executive VP of External Affairs, Pat Corbitt, will be on hand to provide television taping courtesy of his feature film and television production company, UnReal Productions. Still photography is being provided by the US Power Squadron's Chub Varga and Bob Stahl! Extra hammers and some materials are being supplied by Lowe's Home Improvement Center and The Home Depot.
Sea Quest Kids boat building is being presented by Formula Boats, Montano Candy/Montano-Hartmann Motorsports, 3M, Mercury Marine, Sika Industries, and Stearns Manufacturing.
Current Overview of Foundation Activities
The explosive interest in Sea Quest Kids has been phenomenal. I always told the Board to look out for the time when we hit critical mass. With the huge interest in the Sea Quest Kids comes a much greater need for support from people with an understanding of the tremendous value of this type of activity for children. Your interest in our activities comes at a critical time for us.
We travel from 40-60,000 miles a year showing kids how to build boats as the Official Boat Building Program for the APBA Offshore, and the Great Lakes Silver Cup Power boat racing series, and work with the US Sailing Association Junior Olympics Program, in addition to numerous other organizations. We are just starting to work with the US Power Squadron and America Sail Training Association (ASTA trains crews for tall ships)
Among our sponsors are Formula Boats, 3M, Sika Corporation, the National Marine Manufacturers Association, Montano-Hartmann Motorsports, Cigarette Boats, Total Marine Racing, Big Thunder Racing, Cat Can Do Racing, Sea Doo Bombardier, most major boat shows, and others. American Marine Holdings, the parent of Donzi Marine has shown interest in sponsorship and the Donzi team of Snap On Tools has given us some sponsorship.
Sea Quest Kids is the largest boat building and water safety program for kids in the United States and worldwide. In two days or less, kids from five years old and up, including all special needs kids, build their own 10-foot flat bottomed square ended scow-skiff, paddles, oars, mast, sail, sail rig, lee board, rudder system and outboard motor bracket. The kids get boating safety trained as they build the boats and then become part of an international network of kids that have all built their own boats and have organized groups (teams) with ongoing events. The events include sailing regattas, paddle and rowing races, fishing tournaments, overnight campouts, community service doing waterway cleanups, public speaking telling PTA's, Town Councils, Civic Associations why they are building boats and why it is important to them, work with colleges and universities doing aquaculture programs and collect data for university research projects, and show their own boats at boat shows. Some of our kids have even testified before the US Senate and the House of Representatives on boating and water safety issues.
This is "the" grass roots, low cost or no cost entry-level activity for kids to get into boating. It includes all special needs kids as well. We get them all into boating in a totally comprehensive package and get. all kids from every background to mix with each other. Our key advantage over other boat building activities is that we are one design, organized, ongoing, low cost or no cost, quick entry, National and International, and work with all kids regardless of background and special needs.
Advance America Foundation has spent the last twelve years developing a little league for boating. Now that the details have been for the most part worked out, in February of 2002 we began introducing the marine industry to Sea Quest Kids, the little league of boating.
Marine Trades groups around the country as well as the Coast Guard Reserve, Navy League, Power Squadron, Coast Guard Auxiliary, Boys and Girls Clubs, Scouts, Schools, Churches, Yacht Clubs, Fishing Clubs, Marinas, and many other groups are showing great interest in getting Sea Quest Kids started throughout their areas. In Ft. Lauderdale, there are scouts currently trying to go Eagle by teaching kids in their communities how to build boats and then how to use the boats. Churches, community centers, and schools are excited about the Sea Quest Kids. Politicians love the Sea Quest Kids and always jump into paddle races whenever we open programs in their areas.
We have been asked to start Sea Quest Kids in every major nation. We continually get requests to go to boat shows in Mexico, Spain, South and Central America and throughout the Caribbean to show Sea Quest Kids and start Sea Quest Kids Boat Building and Water Safety. Requests even include the Far East and the Middle East as well as all of Europe and Africa.
Most recently, admirals of the Russian Navy asked us to come to St. Petersburg, Russia to teach their children how to build boats. For some time the Sea Quest Kids program has been planning to undertake Children's Boat Building Diplomacy For The World. There is so much interest worldwide in Sea Quest Kids that it seems to be a very realistic objective. We should train you so that you can help us take Sea Quest Kids around the world.
Sea Quest Kids is part of the education foundation, Advance America Foundation, a 501 (c) (3) Public Charity education group. In 11 years we have built over 2,100 boats and have worked with over 22,000 kids. We work with the living legends of Sailing, such as Charley Morgan, Halsey Herreshoff, Ted Hood, Everett Pearson, Gary Hoyt, and Peter Conrad. On the powerboat side we work with Scott Porter of Formula Boats and Reggie Fountain of Fountain Power Boats. Our kids are VIP's at America's Cup and Volvo Around The World Sail Boat Race as well as major boat shows and powerboat races.
I hope that you get to meet Diego and Herman, both from Miami and in wheel chairs. Sea Quest Kids met them at the landing site for the Volvo Around The World Sail Boat Race in Miami in 2002. When they saw the kids building boats, there was no stopping them. They dropped out of their wheel chairs and crawled on the ground for three hours and built their own boat.
It is a blast! Kids and adults love Sea Quest Kids!
Press Release
Sea Quest Kids Go Medical
For Immediate Release
Date: December 9, 2003
Event: Sea Quest Kids, the little league of boating at the 1st Annual Christmas Party at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, New York City
Event Date: Monday, December 15, 2003
Time: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Location: Children's Hospital at Montefiore
Contact: Advance America Foundation Sea Quest Kids: Steve Gronka at 404-434-0660 or E-mail: sgronka@cs.com. Information on the Web at www.advanceaf.org
Copy: The Children's Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx in New York City will be the sight of one of the wildest sights that you will ever see! It will be an inner city boat building Christmas Party for 400 kids in the children's wards on Monday, December 15. Nothing like boat building therapy and education for kids to put more spark in the rehabilitative and healing juices to speed the recovery process. Apparently this is a first in both medical and marine industry history!
And what better place for such innovative therapy than the Montefiore Medical Center that employs more than 10 alumni of the State University of New York (Merchant Marine) Maritime College at Fort Schuyler. Also the Director of Operations at Montefiore is an alumnus of Kings Point Maritime College, the Annapolis of the Merchant Marine Industry.
Monte Kids will be building two Sea Quest 100 scow-skiffs under the direction Sea Quest Kids, the little league of boating. Said Sea Quest Kids Fearless Leader, Steve Gronka, "Building the Sea Quest 100's will be the inauguration of the little league of boating in the Bronx. Our organization, Advance America Foundation Sea Quest Kids is honored to partner with one of the outstanding medical facilities to be found anywhere." We are excited to be with such forward thinking leaders in the medical profession who have instituted the Carl Sagan Science Program for kids at their hospital!
The Children's Hospital at Montefiore is also committed to seeing the Sea Quest Kids program take hold not only as a therapy and education program for kids at the hospital, but also as a great recreation and education activity for kids in the Bronx and around New York City. To that end Gronka will be meeting with regional director of the Boy Scouts Of America and various leaders of children's programs in the Bronx.
The Children's Hospital at Montefiore undertaking Sea Quest Kids boat building at its 1st Annual Christmas party has fired up the imagination and Christmas spirit of the United States Power Squadron. Yeoman's effort by Staff Commander Roberta Dougherty, and her aide de campe, Jeanne Sangiorgio, has resulted in the United States Power Squadron taking a serious look at Sea Quest Kids. Led by none other than Chief Commander Theodore H. Smith, a contingent of national Power Squadron leaders will be on hand to help the Monte Kids build their Sea Quest 100s. Said Commander Smith, " I am not just coming up there to stand by and observe! I want to work with the kids building the boats!" Commander Smith will also be touring the hospital to visit children not well enough to come to the party. Gronka says, "You can tell Commander Smith is really about the kids. He has true caring in his heart! He's our kind of guy! You can bet on this, he will be on his hands and knees with the rest of us poundin' nails, drivin' screws, and puttin' on the glue!."
Chief Commander Smith is also taking this occasion to honor Steve Gronka and Sea Quest Kids fourteen years of work in the Marine Industry in the field of boat building and boating and water safety for kids. Says Gronka, "We are humbled to receive this high honor and recognition from such a distinguished Marine Industry organization as the United States Power Squadron! USPS is so rich in maritime tradition and history and has a preeminent place in the teaching of seamanship, navigation, and boating safety. We look forward to a long and fruitful future of working together with the United States Power Squadron to make a place of significance for kids participating in boating and the Marine Industry!"
The Power Squadron with the help of MetLife is also donating coloring books and t-shirts to be given to all the kids at the party.
Also attending will be Formula Boats Racing Team of Tom Caruso, owner of Total Marine, and Carl Saitta, owner of Roger & Sons Food Service Equipment and Supplies. They will be giving Formula gift items to all of the kids! Additionally one of Sea Quest Kids sponsors, Montano Candy/Montano-Hartmann Motorsports will be donating Christmas Candy for over 400 Monte Kids. Advance America Foundation Advisory Board Member and US Navy League and West Point Society life member, George Kearns will be on hand as well to help make sure the kids all get their gifts. Advance America Foundation Board Member and Executive VP of External Affairs, Pat Corbitt, will be on hand to provide television taping courtesy of his feature film and television production company, UnReal Productions. Still photography is being provided by the US Power Squadron's Chub Varga and Bob Stahl! Extra hammers and some materials are being supplied by Lowe's Home Improvement Center and The Home Depot.
Sea Quest Kids boat building is being presented by Formula Boats, Montano Candy/Montano-Hartmann Motorsports, 3M, Mercury Marine, Sika Industries, and Stearns Manufacturing.
Current Overview of Foundation Activities
The explosive interest in Sea Quest Kids has been phenomenal. I always told the Board to look out for the time when we hit critical mass. With the huge interest in the Sea Quest Kids comes a much greater need for support from people with an understanding of the tremendous value of this type of activity for children. Your interest in our activities comes at a critical time for us.
We travel from 40-60,000 miles a year showing kids how to build boats as the Official Boat Building Program for the APBA Offshore, and the Great Lakes Silver Cup Power boat racing series, and work with the US Sailing Association Junior Olympics Program, in addition to numerous other organizations. We are just starting to work with the US Power Squadron and America Sail Training Association (ASTA trains crews for tall ships)
Among our sponsors are Formula Boats, 3M, Sika Corporation, the National Marine Manufacturers Association, Montano-Hartmann Motorsports, Cigarette Boats, Total Marine Racing, Big Thunder Racing, Cat Can Do Racing, Sea Doo Bombardier, most major boat shows, and others. American Marine Holdings, the parent of Donzi Marine has shown interest in sponsorship and the Donzi team of Snap On Tools has given us some sponsorship.
Sea Quest Kids is the largest boat building and water safety program for kids in the United States and worldwide. In two days or less, kids from five years old and up, including all special needs kids, build their own 10-foot flat bottomed square ended scow-skiff, paddles, oars, mast, sail, sail rig, lee board, rudder system and outboard motor bracket. The kids get boating safety trained as they build the boats and then become part of an international network of kids that have all built their own boats and have organized groups (teams) with ongoing events. The events include sailing regattas, paddle and rowing races, fishing tournaments, overnight campouts, community service doing waterway cleanups, public speaking telling PTA's, Town Councils, Civic Associations why they are building boats and why it is important to them, work with colleges and universities doing aquaculture programs and collect data for university research projects, and show their own boats at boat shows. Some of our kids have even testified before the US Senate and the House of Representatives on boating and water safety issues.
This is "the" grass roots, low cost or no cost entry-level activity for kids to get into boating. It includes all special needs kids as well. We get them all into boating in a totally comprehensive package and get. all kids from every background to mix with each other. Our key advantage over other boat building activities is that we are one design, organized, ongoing, low cost or no cost, quick entry, National and International, and work with all kids regardless of background and special needs.
Advance America Foundation has spent the last twelve years developing a little league for boating. Now that the details have been for the most part worked out, in February of 2002 we began introducing the marine industry to Sea Quest Kids, the little league of boating.
Marine Trades groups around the country as well as the Coast Guard Reserve, Navy League, Power Squadron, Coast Guard Auxiliary, Boys and Girls Clubs, Scouts, Schools, Churches, Yacht Clubs, Fishing Clubs, Marinas, and many other groups are showing great interest in getting Sea Quest Kids started throughout their areas. In Ft. Lauderdale, there are scouts currently trying to go Eagle by teaching kids in their communities how to build boats and then how to use the boats. Churches, community centers, and schools are excited about the Sea Quest Kids. Politicians love the Sea Quest Kids and always jump into paddle races whenever we open programs in their areas.
We have been asked to start Sea Quest Kids in every major nation. We continually get requests to go to boat shows in Mexico, Spain, South and Central America and throughout the Caribbean to show Sea Quest Kids and start Sea Quest Kids Boat Building and Water Safety. Requests even include the Far East and the Middle East as well as all of Europe and Africa.
Most recently, admirals of the Russian Navy asked us to come to St. Petersburg, Russia to teach their children how to build boats. For some time the Sea Quest Kids program has been planning to undertake Children's Boat Building Diplomacy For The World. There is so much interest worldwide in Sea Quest Kids that it seems to be a very realistic objective. We should train you so that you can help us take Sea Quest Kids around the world.
Sea Quest Kids is part of the education foundation, Advance America Foundation, a 501 (c) (3) Public Charity education group. In 11 years we have built over 2,100 boats and have worked with over 22,000 kids. We work with the living legends of Sailing, such as Charley Morgan, Halsey Herreshoff, Ted Hood, Everett Pearson, Gary Hoyt, and Peter Conrad. On the powerboat side we work with Scott Porter of Formula Boats and Reggie Fountain of Fountain Power Boats. Our kids are VIP's at America's Cup and Volvo Around The World Sail Boat Race as well as major boat shows and powerboat races.
I hope that you get to meet Diego and Herman, both from Miami and in wheel chairs. Sea Quest Kids met them at the landing site for the Volvo Around The World Sail Boat Race in Miami in 2002. When they saw the kids building boats, there was no stopping them. They dropped out of their wheel chairs and crawled on the ground for three hours and built their own boat.
It is a blast! Kids and adults love Sea Quest Kids!
Advance America Foundation:
6 South Dillwyn Road
Newark, DE 19711
Phone: 404-434-0660
Web: www.advanceaf.org