Bill Walker is a volunteer member of the Steering Committee and chair of the Administration Committee of the Little Washington Sailing Club. Bill and his wife, Bev, retired to Washington in 2004 from Marietta, Ga., after a 39-year career in sales and marketing to pursue their love of sailing on the Pamlico and the Middle Atlantic region.

Approximately four years ago, the concept of a youth sailing program based on the Washington waterfront was born within the Maritime Committee of DWOW. A small group of volunteers proceeded to put some flesh on those bones. What would such a sailing program look like? How would we implement it? Was this a program the kids would embrace? After all, every child in our community should be able to enjoy what our river has to offer while learning a skill and life lessons.

An excited initial group of sponsors was contacted, and they put up the funding to purchase six Vanguard 420 Club dinghies. None of us had any experience in operating a sailing school, so every day was a new adventure and a challenge. Through trial and error, and by studying other sailing programs, we managed to pull a program together.

Our first year, our base of operation was at the Estuarium with only three of our boats. During this time, we realized the importance of this program. Parents told us how much their children enjoyed the sailing and what a difference the experience had made in their child’s life.

We have been further blessed to have sponsors and donors who provide us with sufficient funding to allow us to offer some scholarships to students who are unable to afford the normal fee of $200.

Over the past two years, more and more people, as they stroll along the promenade, have told us how much they simply enjoy watching the kids as they hone their new skills on the river.

This year holds even greater promise for the program. We now have secured a permanent place on the waterfront at Dock J. This ensures the strollers will continue to enjoy watching kids having a blast.

If you have walked on the promenade in the past couple of weeks, you have seen the boats waiting for the students on June 13, when the first classes begin.

Our registration is well ahead of last year. For the first time, we offer an all-day one week basic class in addition to our standard half-day two-week sessions. Scheduled for Aug. 8-12, this class is completely full. In response, we added two additional all-day one-week basic classes July 25-29 and Aug. 1-5.

By the end of this season, we expect to have graduated close to, if not more than, 150 kids ages 10-18.

We would ask you to encourage your child or grandchild to have a great time on the river this summer. For more information, we are on Facebook, and our website is www.littlewashingtonsailingclub.org. Our program director, Kevin Clancy, can be reached at 252-945-4030.