Last night I had the opportunity to speak to a lovely group of young sailors from the Mercury Bay Boating Club in Whitianga, our second port-of-call on our four-month figure 8 voyage around New Zealand. It warms my soul to see a young person’s face when they step inside Windfola for the first time. Their eyes widen as they imagine what it would be like to sail across an ocean on a small boat, alone. You can see it stoke the adventure in their heart and broaden their understanding of what is possible in this life.
Love, love, love sharing Windfola with young people and their families!
When I imagine a perfect future for youth in foster care, I picture every young person having the safety to dream, the self-confidence to pursue their dreams, and all of the necessary support to carry them along into a successful adulthood. In democracies, we have an obligation to youth in state care — it is our government and our laws that govern their childhoods. That’s why I think we all need to step forward and pledge a commitment to lift up the foster youth in our communities, and that’s just what the Mercury Bay Boating Club has done. I’m so thankful to their Commodore, Jonathan Kline, for acknowledging that there are young people in his community that may need additional support to join their youth sailing program, and committing to helping them to participate. He is fostering a beautiful, kind, and inclusive sailing whanau here!
Whitianga is wonderful, but I’m excited to carry on with our journey down the east coast of the North Island, to meet and welcome aboard more young people in Tauranga. Tauranga is where our sailing family is — the people who welcomed and cared for us during lockdown, and encouraged and supported my figure 8 dream in its most nascent stages. I can’t wait to reunite with our community there, and to connect with even more folks who are championing our Voyage for VOYCE.
I’m also looking forward to sailing on to new ports afterward, like Gisborne and Napier. If you are interested in having me speak with youth in your community as I sail through, please get in touch!
You can follow our voyage on our public tracking map, and enjoy photos and videos of the journey on social media. I hope you’ll also take a moment to learn more about our awesome partner organizations VOYCE - Whakarongo Mai and Spirit of Adventure Trust.
Some of you have asked how you can support us directly, and I’m so thankful to you for that! The number one thing you can do to make my heart happy is to help our Voyage for VOYCE be a success by donating through the Give A Little Page to create a new scholarship fund for youth in foster care to go on the Spirit of New Zealand tall ship’s 10-day, life-changing journeys.
But if you really insist on helping Zia, Windfola, and me sail on, there are a few things you can do:
Share, share, share! Tell everyone you know about what we’re doing, and encourage them to share with their friends, too. This is truly a grassroots campaign, and getting the word out is key to its success! If just 5% of kiwis gave $5 to the fundraiser, VOYCE would have $1.25 million, enabling them to send 500 youth in care on the Spirit of New Zealand! Please, help us reach enough people to making a lasting difference in the lives of teenage foster youth in this country.
Supply us with helpful things. We could use fresh fruits and veggies when we get in to ports along our route, as well as slips, moorings, cooking fuel (methylated spirits), diesel. There are some other small things we could use — like, Zia really needs a new life jacket, and in this cold climate I could really use a hair dryer! Follow our track and get in touch if you’d like to help out… or just simply show up if you spot us coming to your neighborhood.
Help us financially by donating. I am now subscribing to satellite coverage so that followers like you can track us as we sail, and also still paying off our new rig. We are motoring more than usual in order to visit youth around the country, which means we are consuming more diesel than usual. Your contributions will help cover these (and other) costs.
Sponsor the purchase of a major item. We could use a high-quality spare inflatable kayak, a regalvanized or new 8mm chain (minimum 45 meters), a full replacement of Windfola’s degrading original 1985 indoor upholstery (both foam and fabric), and to replace two solar panels that are no longer producing power with one much better panel. You can ship items directly to us at any marina along our route, or to our sailing whanau at Tauranga Bridge Marina, c/o Windfola.
I really appreciate everyone who has encouraged us in our mission to shine a light for foster youth around the world. Thank you so much for all of your support and cheer along the way! We couldn’t do this without you.
xo & fair winds,
elana, zia, and s/v windfola ⛵️💕19 October, 2020; Whitianga, New Zealand