Our partner Clearwater is in acute distress. It is hard times and many of us are in peril but we can not allow the flagship of the environment to go down. Please do what you can.
Marilyn
Dear Clearwater Community,
We are writing to share some difficult news. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has shaken Clearwater’s fragile financial situation beyond our means, and with no classroom programs, events, or sailing season, Clearwater may be faced with closure. To try and fend off that scenario, we are drastically reducing our operations immediately. This includes letting go of more than half of our staff, including several office staff and much of the sloop’s crew. The remaining team will focus on maintaining the sloop, our membership and pursuing any and all options for financial relief and stabilization for a more sustainable organization. We will continue to update you about the 2020 sailing season and programs as we move forward.
While the outlook may seem bleak, this does not have to be the end of Clearwater. We can save this organization. But if we are to weather this storm, it will only be with your help.
Clearwater is too special of a boat – and too unique of an organization – to be lost to this pandemic. Through fifty years of inspiration, education, and action, Clearwater has become the flagship of the environmental movement and a symbol for grassroots activism. The sloop is a tangible monument to the bond that thousands of sailors, singers, and litterpickers have lovingly tended between the people of the Hudson Valley and the river that connects its communities.
If you have ever joined together with the people beside you to raise the sloop’s beautiful sails, or sing a chorus in harmony, or to solve a problem larger than any one person can tackle on their own, then you have also experienced a piece of the magic that makes Clearwater so special. That is the dream we are determined to keep alive.
The river needs Clearwater, and Clearwater needs you. Please donate as generously as you can.
Sincerely,
Hudson River Sloop Clearwater
