nothin Land Trust Absorbs Schooner, Inc. | New Haven Independent

Land Trust Absorbs Schooner, Inc.

Lucy Gellman Photo

Elicker holds out a map from Schooner, Inc. board members.

Schooner, Inc. is becoming part of the New Haven Land Trust, bringing together land and sea.

The announcement came Wednesday night, when representatives from the Land Trust (NHLT) and Schooner gathered at City Point Kitchen.

Schooner, Inc.‘s coastal exploration initiatives and summer camp will be folded into one of the Land Trust’s signature programs.

The NHLT hopes to continue those educational programs throughout the year as well, said Executive Director Justin Elicker, but does not yet have a plan in place to do so immediately. He added that the NHLT does plan to move forward with several of Schooner’s former community partners, including the Sound School and the University of New Haven.

The move comes as Schooner, Inc. formally dissolves into the Land Trust. The plan has been in the works since 2015, said Elicker, when Schooner was struggling financially, and the two organizations (Elicker from the Land Trust and Schooner Board President Kyle Pedersen especially) sat down to figure out what we could do as two separate organizations and what we could do together.” They talked about their organizations’ missions, and whether they were in sync. They asked, Elicker said Wednesday, what was best for our city, and for our organizations.”

The Land Trust’s annual operating budget was around $350,000. Schooner had scaled back considerably,” operating at under $50,000 in 2016; it no longer had staff, and it had to sell it signature vessel. This partnership would allow both visions to survive and grow.

The partnership comes after an experimental period last year, during which Schooner, Inc. funded its summer program at the Long Wharf Nature Preserve—owned and operated by the Land Trust — for students in the city’s Boys & Girls Club. Representatives from the two organizations had begun to talk about marrying operations and resources, ultimately deciding on what Elicker called a sort of not-for-profit shotgun wedding” that would benefit and honor the missions of both groups, now unified under the Land Trust’s umbrella.

In this new format, Schooner’s summer camp model and educational programming — operated fully by the Land Trust, but maintaining the Schooner name and vision—will add marine and maritime education to the Land Trust’s environmental lessons at the Long Wharf Nature Preserve. Working with 6 – 12 year-olds, the Land Trust will expand last year’s summer camp option, partnering with both local organizations like the Boys & Girls Club of New Haven and kids from outside of New Haven who can pay to enroll in the camp. Board members are working to introduce a sailing option for the older students, and Elicker said that he is hoping that the Land Trust will have enough money to subsidize half of its campers, kids that can’t afford camp” under other circumstances.

The Land Trust will hire educator Sarah Morrison, who ran last year’s summer camp, as a temporary summer employee, adding to its staff of three full-time, two part-time, and five to eight seasonal summer employees. As the Land Trust’s staff expands, so too will its current board of directors, bringing on an additional 10 members from Schooner for a total of 24 members. Elicker said that size was an adjustment the Land Trust was working with in the short term.”

Holmes, with a new banner in the background.

Wednesday night’s mood was celebratory, and not elegiac. Packing City Point Kitchen close to capacity, nearly 50 supporters and representatives of Schooner and the Land Trust lifted their glasses to Elicker, Pedersen, and Land Trust Board Chair Walker Holmes, expressing their excitement for the institutional growth ahead. 

These things would not happen without a lot of people who are willing to put their egos aside and figure out what’s best for New Haven,” said Elicker, scrambling onto one of the restaurant’s built-in benches to stand above the crowd. We live in really challenging times. And there is so much divisiveness in our nation, in Connecticut, in many of the communities that we live nearby. There are in my opinion attacks on environmental issues that we should care deeply about. I think the way to resolve these problems is to … look at the group of community members around us, work locally, and partner together.”

You made a decision to do something so much bigger than yourselves,” he added, speaking directly to the New Haven Land Trust and Schooner boards. And I know that you will all be very happy as we move forward.”

I’m really excited about bringing land and water together in New Haven,” said Pedersen, whose first interaction with Schooner came when his daughter, now 13, experienced its programs at six years old. Our hope now is to return to full programs — we talk about the sea at the end of the street,’ so what we are hoping is to open things up and let kids see them. All we need to do is to get them to water, and they’ll do the rest.”

I think it’s a natural fit, to merge and combine resources” said Schooner enthusiast and board member Nicolas Gangloff, whose 11-year-old twins have already been pestering him about the details of the summer camp. Schooner has these wide experiences, and the New Haven Land Trust knows how to manage. There’s still a lot of work ahead but its something we’re looking forward to.”

Frew and Morrison.

When you get something like the New Haven Land Trust and Schooner, it marries a lot of wonderful programs,” said Melanie Barocas Mayer, vice president and treasurer at Mfund, Inc., which supports arts, education, and environmental initiatives including the Land Trust. I find that hands on teaching [like that at the NHLT] is the most valuable education some of these kids could ever get. That turns a community around, That brings people together. And it nourishes — mind, body, and soul.”

Chatting with new colleagues and old at the end of the bar, Morrison said the Land Trust’s decision to take on Schooner delighted her. After teaching the camp last year, she couldn’t imagine hearing better news about the two working in concert — and thinks that New Haven youth will benefit tremendously.

I’m really excited about camp, and incorporating more aspects this year,” she said. The kids come away with a sense of appreciation and ownership, an appreciation for the land and the Long Island Sound. If our goals are stewardship, fun, commitment — I’d say we’re there.”

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