Jolly Madison Sailing Club

Excited to be back! Year 3!!

So happy to have everyone join us for our event last night!

We had an amazing time talking with all the sailors after their second practice day! Next stop… races! Good luck everyone! (See you Saturday!)

ARGHHH! 🏴‍☠️🦜

Yo ho yo ho! Tonight we traded our pirate ship for a pirate Lexus to join New City Kids: Grand Rapids for their annual Trunk or Treat to celebrate Halloween!

It was so great to see so many past sailors, interns, and future sailors throughout the event! And hand out some candy to our community!

Thank you so much New City Kids for hosting this event, and to Kareem Scales for joining as well!

Happy Halloween from Jolly Madison! 👻🎃

Wow! We cannot believe the summer has come to an end! These last few months flew by, and we are happy to announce that we had another successful season!

Thank you to everyone that made this an awesome program- between our staff, partners, board, and donors! We could not have done it without your support and collaboration.

🎉We are also so excited to share with you our 2023 Summer Newsletter: The Jolly Journal!🎉

Check out this journal for summer updates on each session, pictures, content, and memories we shared this season!

Click on our link to website to read the newsletter!

Have a great Labor Day Weekend!
Be Jolly! 💛💚

Happy number #20 ! (1 day late!) ⛵️

So happy to finally reach 20 Sailing Saturdays! Excited to have started this series, and for the Sailing Saturdays to come!

Today we are keeping on the S trend and highlighting our new lesson on SUSTAINABILITY! 🌎

At JMSC we care about our sailors experience with us, and love that we get to sail on Barlow Lake! Along with this, we want to ensure that the lake we sail on an our planet remains healthy and thriving for the future JMSC sailors!

With this in mind, we developed a sustainability pledge for our sailors to sign at camp! By signing our “Be Green…Be Jolly” pledge, our sailors are showing their commitment to sustaining our environment for our use, and for the future generations of sailors whom share this planet with us! 🌱

We learned about climate change, how our ecological systems work, and ways we can make changes in our daily lives to be more eco-conscious! Then students were able to sign the pledge if they choose and we went on a hike to pick up trash on our campsite!

We are so proud of our sailors and their dedication to be stewards on the boat, and eco-stewards for our planet! So excited for more sailors to sign this pledge as the summer continues! ♻️

Finally meet Daisy! She will also be joining us as an intern this summer, and sailed with us last summer too!

“Hi!! My name is Daisy Torres and I’m very excited to be one of the new interns here this summer at Jolly Madison! I’m 15 years old and going into my sophomore year. I love being on the water and learning how to sail has been such an amazing opportunity! I’m excited to be a first time intern this year, although I have attended the summer camp this past summer! Attending was such an amazing experience and I knew I would love to continue experiencing all the things about sailing! Which is why I can’t wait to sail and learn more with Jolly Madison this summer!”

Meet Daisy! 💚💛

Next: Meet Jackie! One of our Interns this summer at JMSC!

Jackie participated in our camp last summer with New City Kids, and returned to help teach our campers this year!

“Hi I’m Jackie I am one of the new interns here at Jolly! I am an incoming sophomore in high school and I am 15 years old, this is my second year here at jolly the first as an intern!” 💚💛

Hi! I’m Caitlin Derby ! This is my 2nd year at Jolly Madison as a sailing instructor.

I’ve been sailing most of my life and even sail competitively. I’m currently going into my sophomore year at the University of Vermont, where I am majoring in Environmental Science. I’m also a part of the sailing team at UVM. Some of things I love to do include running, playing guitar, and just spending time outside!

I’m super excited to have another summer here at Jolly Madison. I love being able to share the sport of sailing with others.

Be Jolly!

Hi everyone!

My name is Gabi Sleeman ! I am 22 years old and just graduated from Michigan State University in Environmental Science and Sustainability and Marine Ecosystems Management! Go green!💚

I have been with JMSC for 2 years now, beginning as a sailing instructor, and am now our director/STEM educator! I have been involved in the sport of sailing since I was little, as my dad sails competitively in the summers! Watching his races drove my passion to sail and teach others!

In my free time I love to scuba dive, travel, and make art! (I just recently came home from Africa where I saw the penguins in Cape Town!)

I am so excited to come back to Jolly to teach you all this summer! This year I am so excited to include more sustianability in our lessons and actions as a camp, and meet all our new students!

Can’t wait to see you all! And…Be Jolly! ⛵️😃

Happy to have you all out with us! Such an amazing day! Thankful you all were able to watch the races, such a fun experience!

Be Jolly! 💛💚

Happy #14 ⛵️

Today we would like to honor our veterans and those who are serving as we celebrate Memorial Day this Monday! 🇺🇸

So… For our sailing Saturday, we would like to highlight another non-profit and sailing team: Warrior Sailing! ⭐️

This non profit involves military service members in sailing by getting them on the water! Warrior Sailing states that sailing is a great way to provide mental, physical, and emotional therapy to veterans in their program! Such an awesome group and organization!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Thank you so much to everybody who could come join us at our annual fundraiser last night from 4 to 7 at Broadleaf Brewery and Spirits! 💚💛

We are so thankful for all the support, and loved talking with each one of you about our program and how it is growing throughout the years! We are so excited for the future of Jolly, and couldn’t do it without you all! 🎉

Shoutout to the awesome speakers we had last night from YMCA Camp Manitou-Lin (Syd Baxter and Luke 'Hoopla' Gerke), as well as Officer Mike Harris from Boar Soar, and Kareem from the NAACP! We are so thankful they could join us and talk about their experiences with Jolly as partners and supporters of our program!

If you were not able to make it, you were still able to donate! 💚
(1) Visit our Instagram story highlight titled “donate “to see our username and QR code to our Venmo (insta:
(2) Or slide to the last picture on this post for our Venmo QR code!

(Our user is Venmo: @ jollymadisonsailing ! )

Be jolly! Excited for the 2023 season!
⛵️

Happy #13 everyone! ⛵️

For this week we would like to talk about one of the fun ways we test are sailors knowledge throughout our two weeks sessions….

⚓️ Sailor’s Jeopardy! ⚓️

What a great way to test knowledge in a game that we’ve been playing for years!
Our campers will get into teams, and every time a correct answer is achieved, the team gets to collect a treat! Which they all will divide and share in the end!

Categories include:
- Sink or float? ↕️
- Parts of the boat! ⛵️
- Seamanship ⚓️
- Points of Sail 💨
- And Capsizing 101! 🦺

All questions getting harder as the point values increase, while also, reminding our sailors of important information regarding point-of-sale, part of the boat, and skills needed to recover from a capsize!

Would you play Jeopardy with us?
How do you think you would do? 💚💛

Hello everyone!
Happy Sailing Saturday #8!⛵️

This week, we would like to start highlighting some of the ways we’ve incorporated science and STEM here at sailing camp! 🧪🧬

With the guidance of US Sailing’s REACH program, we are able to incorporate science as our teaching component at Jolly! Everyone comes to camp and engages in a sailing lesson and stem lesson! 🥼

One of these is learning about wind! (Shown above!) Students learn about how wind speed and wind direction influence us as sailors, as well as how we can use this to benefit us! 💨🌊Like measuring wind with an anemometer, or flying a kite! As well as determining where the wind comes from and using a compass to find out what direction we should sail in next!

We believe that learning the how of sailing is important, but also understanding why we can sail, and which geophysical features affect this is just at important to explore! 📝🔎

See you all next Saturday! 💚💛

Happy Groundhog Day! We hope everyone has had a great week, and remembers to bundle up! The groundhog predicted six more weeks of winter! 🦫