Despite the high water, Sodus Bay Junior Sailing Association (SBJSA) in Sodus Point opened its summer camp season on schedule the week of July 1st with a reinforced waterfront and a staff eager to teach the lifelong joys and safe healthy benefits of sailing & water sports to kids 8-18. Added to the curriculum this year they have introduced an eco-environmental awareness—to learn about how we can all better protect our great natural resource of Sodus Bay. It will be guided by Pultneyville native, SBJSA alum, and internationally renowned environmental scientist Joanna Carey, PhD. 

Dr. Carey, a graduate of Williamson High School, is an Assistant Professor at Babson College with an adjunct appointment at Boston University and degrees from Virginia Tech, Yale, and Boston University. She is excited about volunteering her expertise to SBJSA, where she learned to sail and swim. She hopes that by enhancing staff and students’ awareness of Sodus Bay’s natural environment she will make an impact on the sailors’ curiosity about and use of the Bay—as well as their respect for science—while having fun. She will visit the camp at special times over the summer sessions to answer camper questions, demonstrate the magic and science of water and share her enthusiasm for preserving water quality.  

The goal of SBJSA’s highly regarded program, in its 63rd year of teaching sailing and watercraft, is to provide ‘Access to All’ through its educational and Community Boating programs. 

With the support of a 2019 planning grant from the Wayne County Community Foundation, administered by Rochester Area Community Foundation, SBJSA is expanding its staff training, pursuing more opportunities for community outreach, participation and scholarships, as well as starting a new model partnership with Sodus Central School. As an independent non-profit organization, SBJSA’s success has always been dependent on the generosity of donations. 

They continuously seek ways of funding and improving  programs to impact more boaters with the skills and responsibilities needed for appreciating sailing and boating,

SBJSA alumni like Dr. Carey have,  over the decades, been inspired toward both athletic and academic success. Many have become significant members of college NCAA sailing teams (often with athletic scholarships) and/or champion racers with national and international trophies to display. 

An expert on biogeochemical cycling and water quality, particularly in rivers and wetlands, Dr. Carey is committed to introducing the importance of understanding natural resources in people’s daily lives and work. At Babson, she teaches future business leaders how to incorporate the environmental impact of their decisions and behaviors. She also regularly advocates in the United States Congress for more funding for science education. Her current research focuses on how rapid warming in the Arctic alters nutrient cycling in the tundra. Her teaching materials will include a map of the Sodus Bay watershed created by former SBJSA student and racing instructor John Koudelka, as well as several fun activities that SBJSA campers can use to help them understand the “way of the Bay,” what feeds it, makes it a balanced ecosystem, and the practices that protect it from pollution and neglect.

  As Dr. Carey says, “We shouldn’t take a clean Sodus Bay for granted. Recreation on the water elicits lots of thrills, laughter and smiles, but it also requires ongoing appreciation and stewardship of the Bay.”

 For more information about our summer programs for kids and adults, go to www.sbjsa.org.     

PHOTO COURTESY OF:  webbchappell