About the Foundation
Sailing into
the Future
Take a peek at a this video detailing some of our ongoing efforts to promote and preserve Nantucket Harbor and its marine Ecosystem.
Read about the Foundation and our scientific advisors in this fall’s edition of Nantucket Today.
Board of Directors
Paul Collins, President
Matthew Dwyer, Vice President
William Einstein, Treasurer
Cece Fowler, Clerk
Edward Bernard
Marcus Fuller
Karen Ketterer
Edward Orenstein
Joe Smialowski
Brooke Stanton
Elliot Gewirtz, Chairman Emeritus
Scientific Advisors
William DuPaul, Ph. D.
Robert Orth, Ph. D.
Steve Tettlebach, Ph. D.
Since 2018 the Great Harbor Yacht Club’s primary mission has been to improve the health of the Nantucket Harbor and its marine ecosystem. This includes promoting the health of the Nantucket’s iconic but much endangered bay scallop fishery. Nutrient loading from groundwater runoff, fertilizers and the like remains a real issue producing harmful algae blooms and killing off eelgrass so critical to scallop larvae. In just four short decades our waters have experienced a catastrophic loss of eelgrass impacting bay scallop populations in our harbor.
The Foundation continues to fund and identify projects that meaningfully improve the health of the harbor and its marine ecosystem. One such project is the bioswale adjacent to the Club that is designed to prevent untreated nutrient loaded storm run-off from entering the harbor.
The Foundation’s highly regarded Scientific Research Advisors, William D. Du Paul Ph.D., Steve Tettlebach Ph.D., and Robert J. Orth Ph.D. assist the board in vetting proposals and identifying projects deserving funding. Our advisors met with the Town’s Department of Natural Resources in early November 2022 to further this effort.
Over the last three years we have established an endowment in excess of $2.3 million, completely funded by Great Harbor Yacht Club Members. The income from the endowment, combined with the proceeds from annual events, such as the Foundation Cup Regatta & Gala, will support the work of the Foundation. To date, the Foundation has committed and/or funded over $356,000 in projects, studies, and community outreach. Going forward, we will expand these efforts, especially remediation projects. The needs of Nantucket Harbor are pressing and will benefit our membership and the community at large.
The problem is not one of tomorrow, but a crisis of today.
Please join us in answering this critical call for action.
To those who have already given, we thank you for your past generosity; it has allowed us to make important first steps that will merit your on-going support. To those who are just discovering the Foundation, we hope that you too will help further our Club’s commitment to giving back to the community by supporting the health of the harbor.
Kind Regards - Elliot Gewirtz, Chairman Emeritus of GHYCF
From our Chairman Emeritus
Why Create a Foundation?
The harbor has been central to the very fabric of the Nantucket community from the time it was first settled. It is now our turn to be good stewards and help ensure that on our watch we leave a fertile marine habitat for future generations. Because Nantucket is the last surviving commercial scalloping fishery in New England, it is a goal of the Foundation that the work we support preserves a traditional way of life unique to our island culture. We may not be able to rewind the clock to the way things were in centuries past, but we can make a meaningful and measurable difference over the long term in preventing the permanent disappearance of this culture, this ecosystem, and this way of life.
Supporting the Health of the Harbor
As members of Great Harbor Yacht Club, we have a unique opportunity to support the scientific research and the resulting projects that will help restore the health of the harbor so central to our Club and the Nantucket community. In the process, we will be leaving a legacy not only for our own children and grandchildren, but for the entire Nantucket community. We are privileged to be able to give back, and with your support the Foundation’s mission will be furthered and the Club’s commitment to Nantucket’s future demonstrated.