Freedom Boat Club brings joy of boating to Children’s Beach House campers
Every week during the summer camp season, youngsters attending Children’s Beach House camp on Lewes Beach can be found exploring the waters of Delaware Bay, thanks to the generosity of Freedom Boat Club and its members.
The boat club, which provides access to a range of boats for its dues-paying members, recruits them as volunteers to head up weekly outings, and then supplies the boats and fuel for the trips.
“The boat trips are always a highlight for the campers during their stays with us,” said Jonathan Freeman-Coppadge, CBH camp coordinator. “They come back from them with stories about how many dolphins they saw, the different varieties of birds they learned about and the lighthouse they got to see close up. Then they draw and paint pictures of all those things in art class. We’re so grateful to Freedom Boat Club and its members for making all that happen.”
The weekly boat outings are part of a larger, ongoing relationship between the boat club and Children’s Beach House. Freedom Boat Club’s local franchise owners Tom and Bev Rosella, and Kloe Thompson, who manages their fleet operations, have become ardent supporters of CBH and its work. In February 2021, Thompson joined a cadre of other CBH volunteers to help repaint the public spaces of the Children’s Beach House Lewes facility. Then she and the Rosellas planned and hosted Hope Floats, a beachfront gala that raised funds to support the work of CBH. Thompson co-chaired the 2022 CBH beach barbecue and is chairing the 2023 event, which will take place Saturday, Aug. 26. Freedom Boat Club is also an event sponsor.
