Since 2001, the Maritime Challenge Foundation has chartered schooners with its fundraising efforts to provide an inspiring recreational, inter-personal, and educational experience to over 350 cancer survivor participants.
In January 2003, the Maritime Challenge Foundation initiated a successful collaborative effort with the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. Maritime Challenge’s role in this collaboration consists of an invitation to Hole in the Wall Gang campers, as well as camp alumni, to experience a week at sea aboard a traditionally-rigged schooner.
This past summer 2004, Maritime Challenge offered to 28 teenagers, all former campers of the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp (HWGC) a week-long maritime experience onboard the Ocean Classroom Foundation vessel, Harvey Gamage, a 131’foot sailing schooner. During each of the week-long sessions, 14 girls and boys participated in the sail training program, the crew of Ocean Classroom, the staff from Maritime Challenge, and the HWGC, ensured a smooth transition and successful experience for campers.
These successful trips resulted in the American Sail Training Association (ASTA) selecting the Camp Schooner Discovery Program (the Maritime Challenge Camp) as the Sail Training Program of the Year, 2004. ASTA is designed to inform and inspire excellence in the development and delivery of educational experiences under sail. The goal of the Maritime Challenge Camp is to give an opportunity to the former HWGC campers to immerse themselves in a challenging and focused sailing environment where they improve their self-confidence, while re-framing their role in group situations, in a physically and psychologically safe environment.
The Maritime Challenge Foundation works in collaboration with the Ocean Classroom Foundation, also a non-profit organization, providing sea education programs to American youths, adventure expeditions combined with academic studies in maritime history, maritime biology and oceanography. Students have participated in programs from Ocean Classroom since 1996.
Please contact us!
If you would like to be involved, or wish to receive mailings from the Maritime Challenge Foundation, or know someone who would benefit from the programs, please let us know. For immediate response, please e-mail us at info@maritimechallenge.org.
The Maritime Challenge FoundationP.O. Box C
Camden, Maine 04843
Voice: 207.691.0183