The American Sail Training Association has been commended by the United States Congress
as the
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Great Lakes United TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE®2010
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Click here for videos of the Great Lakes United TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® 2010 |
Wednesday, August 25, 2010: In a specatular Parade of Sail, more than twenty tall ships made their way to Navy Pier yesterday for the sixth and final official port event of the American Sail Training Association's Great Lakes United TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® 2010 series. The Pepsi Tall Ships® Chicago 2010 Festival at Navy Pier will run from Aug. 24 - 29.
The ships are docked in three locations at Navy Pier. Most of the ships will be open for public boarding throughout the five-day festival and several will offer 60 - 90 minute sailaways.
The ships are part of a fleet of over twenty tall ships participating in the American Sail Training Association's Great Lakes United TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® 2010 "Race to Save the Lakes" series on the Great Lakes this summer. Chicago, IL is the sixth and final official port stop of the series which also included stops in Toronto, Ontario, Cleveland, Ohio, Bay City, Michigan, Duluth, Minnesota, and Green Bay, Wisconsin.
The Great Lakes United TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® 2010 "Race to Save the Lakes" series, is a port-to-port race sailing across the world’s largest source of fresh surface water. The race has been termed “The Race to Save the Lakes”, as the ships race from port to port, carrying with them a message of Great Lakes water conservation and preservation to the millions of people who will come out to see the tall ships.
The parnership between the American Sail Training Association and Great Lakes United is fitting. The American Sail Training Association is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization focused on youth education, leadership development and the preservation of the maritime heritage of North America. Since 1973, ASTA has supported Education Under Sail and Youth Character Development aboard tall ships. It has been commended by U.S. Congress as the official Sail Training Organization for the United States, and represents over 200 member vessel operations in the U.S. and worldwide. It organizes the TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® Series, manages scholarship programs to make sail training experiences more affordable for young people, grant programs to assist crew of ASTA member vessels with the costs of professional development courses and licensing requirements and publishes SAIL TALL SHIPS! A Directory of Sail Training and Adventure at Sea.
While ASTA trains young sailors in the tradition of a rich sailing history, Great Lakes United presses the importance of protecting the waters that these ships, sailors and 40 million people depend on.
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We are excited to get people out to the waterfronts to see these magnificent ships and engage with them in a conversation about the Great Lakes,” said Derek Stack, Executive Director of Great Lakes United, “40 million people rely on the lakes for their drinking water, and we want to help educate people about what we can do together to protect these waters for generations to come.” (Learn more about what you can do at the The Race to Save the Lakes Blog)
“The Great Lakes are amazing bodies of water that deserve to be celebrated and protected,” said Melanie Napoleon, director of Great Lakes conservation at Shedd Aquarium. “Each person who visits the festival will learn something new about the largest freshwater sailing vessels, the majestic Great Lakes and what they can do at home to make a difference.”
Across six ports, and all five of the lakes, the Great Lakes United TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® 2010 Race Series carries a message of freshwater conservation in celebration of waters worth protecting.
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The mission of the American Sail Training Association
is to encourage character building through sail training,
promote sail training to the North American public,
and support education under sail.