Blue Chips Charity Regatta

100_4315On Saturday, July 26, 2014, Oak Hollow Sailing Club members, family, friends and guests gathered for the club’s First Annual Blue Chips Charity Regatta, in memory of Nancy Valego, who was a founding and lifetime member of the club and who passed away a year ago from pancreatic cancer. Nancy’s dedication to OHSC and to the sport of sailing exemplified Oak Hollow Sailing Club’s mission of “promoting and enjoying the sport of sailing”. She is missed every day and every event that we hold. It is a wonderful remembrance of Nancy that her beloved Vagabond 14, “Blue Chips” remains in our club and continues to sail with us under the ownership and captaining of Melissa Palmer. Although Melissa is sailing “Blue Chips”, we still see Nancy aboard.
For many of our new members who did not know Nancy, her service to the club resulted in our ongoing commitment to teaching sailing. She was responsible for establishing OHSC as the educators for High Point University’s sailing class. That teaching arrangement has provided the club with the opportunity to keep our dues affordable, and keeps us in an ideal position to share our love and knowledge of sailing with young people who may make it a lifelong hobby. What better way to promote our sport!
The club’s board, when establishing this event, also decided to make it a charitable event, by requesting donations toward cancer research. Two cancer research organizations were selected for donations, a local organization, the Susan Komen Foundation, which Nancy had supported, and a pancreatic cancer research organization, the Lustgarten Foundation. Linda Marsh designed a beautiful tee shirt for the event and Rosalie Austin had them printed. The proceeds from the sale of the shirts will also be contributed to cancer research.
The turnout for the event was fantastic! We had 19 boats who participated in the event with 30 captains and crew, and with the addition of family, friends and guests, we easily had double that total who joined the celebration. There was a lot of planning, organization, and work put into the day to make it such a success. Special thanks to Linda Marsh, Connie Sloan, Rosalie Austin, Melissa Palmer, and Carol Eldred for ALL their hard work! Thank you to all who showed up to participate, honor Nancy’s memory, and donate to such a worthy cause.
Sincerely,
Paul Walter
2014 Commodore
Oak Hollow Sailing Club