Save the Harbor/Save the Bay awarded the City of Lynn and the Town of Nahant $31,500 in grants to host free beach events and programs throughout the summer.
The grant funding comes from the organization’s Better Beaches Program Partnership with the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). Better Beaches works with communities to create free events on area beaches, with the goal of fostering a stronger and inclusive sense of community for people to enjoy.
Funds for the program came from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and from Save the Harbor’s annual JetBlue Shamrock Splash fundraiser.
“I can say that I’m very excited about it, and I will be looking forward to working with the organization,” Chair of the Board of Selectmen Rob Tibbo said.
Executive Director of Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, Chris Mancini, shared his excitement for the opportunities to create more events.
“The program has been going since 2008, and it’s a grant for free events on beaches… Nahant will be getting more than $30,000, or ten percent of the grant pool,” Mancini said. “And it’s going to be concerts in Red Rock Park, surfing, outdoor painting, and they’re all free — open to everybody.”
Mancini continued, “This year has brought many new challenges facing organizations like Save the Harbor… So, we’re particularly grateful to be sharing these spectacular urban natural resources in a state that understands the value of our 40 years of work.”
Mancini said the organization is especially grateful for its long partnership with the Massachusetts DCR. “Not to mention the stalwart support from the Healey/Driscoll administration and the Metropolitan Beaches Commission, as well as from JetBlue and all of our corporate partners whose support allows us to activate our beaches all summer long,” he said.
The grantees will bring free programming all summer long to 13 beaches in Nahant, Lynn, Revere, Winthrop, East Boston, South Boston, Dorchester, Quincy and Hull. The 80 groups receiving grants this year are based in all the metropolitan beachfront and waterfront communities, as well as a dozen surrounding cities and towns.
State Sen. Brendan Crighton commented on how the grant can help bolster activity within the community.
“Community engagement and awareness of harbor and beach ecology are some of the many ways Save the Harbor strengthens our state and expands access to public spaces… It’s inspiring how Better Beaches promotes engagement with ecology by creating personal connections to our fantastic state beaches,” he said.
Crighton continued, “This is something that’s been successful since its inception, where it brings in as many people as possible to the local beaches… They’ve done concerts at Red Rock Park, some painting lessons as well, but it’s also about familiarizing people with keeping the beaches clean.”
Since the program began, Better Beaches has supported more than 2,100 free events and programs and leveraged more than $7.3 million in state and local investment in beachfront and waterfront communities. This year, Better Beaches events are expected to draw nearly 500,000 attendees to more than 200 free events and programs, according to the press release.
“I am proud and excited by the diversity of the Better Beaches partners,” DCR Commissioner Brian Arrigo said. “Working with Save the Harbor to improve the life and access to the waterfront for all visitors to our neighborhood shows how vibrant a community we have in the Commonwealth and how DCR’s beaches can welcome and serve everybody.”
“I’m very grateful for the Better Beaches Grant. This will be the fifth year that I’ll be doing painting at Red Rock Park, it’s something that the community is really looking forward to,” Annette Sykes of Save the Harbor/Save the Bay said. “This year, we’re including for one day only an evening sunset painting on August 1.”
She continued, “We’re going to be having a guest painter, a local painter who is on the autism spectrum, who will be there to inspire the community visitors to work on their own pieces of art… We’ll be giving lessons to help people at every stage, it’s free for everybody.”
