Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation

Dear Fellow Club Members:

Thanks to all for making our recent wine auction a huge success! Your enthusiastic help is what makes our Charitable Foundation so vibrant and enables us to support so many wonderful groups serving our Region in myriad ways.

Our biggest event of the year is coming up this month — and I hope you all have registered for the 7th Annual Ride or Walk for a Better Community on Sun., Feb. 18. This annual event is open to everyone - your family, friends and neighbors too! Not only is the camaraderie, fresh air and exercise wonderful, but the Club provides a stellar brunch on the bay afterwards. If you don’t feel like walking or riding, consider sponsoring someone else’s ride or walk. It is for such a great cause! To register or sponsor, just visit http://www.vyccf.com and follow the prompts.

This month we are highlighting two organizations VYCCF supports that promote coastal stewardship and environmental aid to our area—and both are right here in Venice!

Oyster Boys Conservation’s mission is to use natural and innovative water filtration methods to combat runoff pollution and harmful algae blooms. One of the techniques employed in this fight is the use of vertical oyster gardens. These serve as landing pads for baby oyster larvae which would otherwise die. These efforts help preserve a viable oyster population which has been depleted over the past decades. One lone oyster can filter 50 gallons of polluted saltwater every day—quite an accomplishment!

The VYCCF grant will be used to install these oyster gardens around Roberts, Dona and Lyons Bays.

The second organization is Sun Coast Reef Rovers. This is a diving organization bringing together volunteers and fostering community involvement to clean and improve our area waters. Sun Coast Reef Rovers were instrumental in the Venice Pier Underwater clean-up as well as cleaning the rocks of the Venice Jetties. In August and September of this year, the Sun Coast Reef Rovers had an underwater clean-up of the Venice Yacht Club piers, Higel Park and the mooring field in Roberts Bay. A total of 2,600 pounds of marine debris was removed in this effort. The grant money provided will be used to fund multiple clean-up projects both in and around our area waters in the coming months.

Again, thanks to all for your commitment to the VYCCF; hope to see you all on the 18th!

Appreciatively,
Barbi Richardson

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updated: February 2024 Currents