Imagine being a child fighting cancer, not leaving your hospital room except for tests and treatments, and then resting on the deck of a sailboat, smelling fresh air for the first time in a year. Imagine living with abuse every day at home, and then relaxing in safety on the sea. Imagine facing serious illness alone, and then finding friends who truly understand.

Now celebrating its 25th year, Sailing Heritage Society creates hope and community through sailing trips on the healing sea. Our guests are those living with cancer or other serious illness, families suffering from domestic violence, at-risk youth, and many others whose lives have been turned upside down.

Our core mission is to promote the sport of dragon boat paddling for the betterment of life and the community.

Dragon boat paddling is the oldest continuously practiced team sport in the world with origins that can be traced back 2,400 years in China. Dragon Boat paddlers can be found in more than 145 countries worldwide. It is also the fastest growing sport in the world with more than 50 million paddlers each year…and counting.

Seattle Parks Foundation is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving and expanding Seattle’s parks and green spaces.

Since 2001, private donations and grants have enabled Seattle Parks Foundation and its community partners to complete 24 park projects, including three new parks, and raise over $28 million in private contributions.

Sound Experience, a nonprofit organization, sails the historic schooner Adventuress to help people discover Puget Sound and learn from its majesty and vulnerability. As they voyage through the Puget Sound basin, Sound Experience participants are encouraged to realize their interdependence with the ship, the natural environment and each other. They see how their daily behavior makes a difference. And they respond with a growing spirit of cooperation, community, stewardship and responsibility.

The Center for Wooden Boats is a hands-on maritime museum. Its purpose is to preserve our rich, vital and varied small craft heritage by preserving both the artifacts and the time-tested maritime skills. Our aim is to provide an educational adventure, through participation, in our small craft heritage.The Center offers an opportunity to experience the dimensions of an earlier time, to put your hands on the oars of a graceful pulling boat or the tiller of a traditional wooden catboat. With help from master craftsmen, you can learn to steambend an oak frame, cast an oarlock, sew a canvas ditty bag, splice a line or caulk a seam.