Milwaukee Community Sailing Center's Teresa Coronado
The Milwaukee Community Sailing Center was founded in 1977 when local sailing enthusiasts partnered with Milwaukee County officials to create a community organization that makes sailing accessible to everyone in the Milwaukee area, regardless of financial concerns, age or ability. As the Sailing Center’s membership grew, so did the size of the fleet, the roster of staff and the number and type of sailing courses offered—including for the disabled—on a wide variety of boats. Off the Cuff spoke with Teresa Coronado, the Sailing Center’s program director.
What is the Sailing Center and how did it come into being?
The Milwaukee Community Sailing Center came into being when a group of people from the city thought there should be a place where people who want to celebrate sailing and get more people out on the water could go. The objective was that people would not have to be attached to a yacht club, because yacht clubs have their own place; they also have food and drink requirements, and most people have to own their own boats. So, we thought it would be great if Milwaukee had a place where anybody could sail, and you didn’t necessarily have to own your own boat, but you could go learn, build a community spirit, have teaching and learning moments and get out on the water.
Is there any way to enable Milwaukee’s children from poorer neighborhoods to engage in an upper-middle-class or upper-class sport?
Yes. The focus on membership is on those people who typically wouldn’t be involved in a yacht club setting. I would use myself as an example. I’m a Mexican American, my dad was an enlisted member of the military; we were very poor. Access to sailing would never have even occurred to me if I hadn’t had a grandfather who sailed. But my grandfather came from one of those white, upper-middle-class groups that had access to the water. As I grew up, I realized that I had some privileges in that particular area. Coming here to the Sailing Center, I feel that it has made efforts to ensure that all people feel welcome. They don’t just say “we’re open to everybody” and then expect people to find them; the Center conducts outreach into the community. We’ve done good outreach into local schools, so we can get middle-schoolers and high-schoolers out sailing, as well as other community groups, such as boys and girls clubs, scouting groups and more.
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So, the Sailing Center has reached out to underrepresented communities?
We have. We don’t want to be one of those groups that’s exclusive in terms of sailing. We want to walk the walk in terms of inclusivity. That includes keeping our prices for membership low and offering scholarships and sliding-scale fees and making sure that that information is kept private. We also have memberships for people with disabilities. They can join and have an attendant come with them, so they can get out on the water. In fact, every Friday all summer long, we have about 80 people with disabilities come down, and we take them sailing.
This is the 40th anniversary of an institution that most people in Milwaukee don’t know much about. What are you doing for your 40th anniversary?
Starting this spring, we asked our membership to do more community-centered events that weren’t just exclusively about sailing. We did a kick-off event with Milwaukee Water Commons, and we had about 100 people come through to learn about safety on the water. We also did our first blood drive, which was held in our upstairs community area space. We have a paint night event coming up, which is a fundraiser for Curt Crain. He doesn’t necessarily do classes, but he thought it would be fun, and he’s going to show us how to create an Impressionist-style painting. For people who can’t take part in the fundraiser (tickets are $100), he’s doing a pop-up gallery, so people can see his work. Finally, we’re planning a party to celebrate our 40th anniversary to take place in October.
You have a lovely events space with, perhaps, the best view of Downtown Milwaukee. What kinds of events do you do here?
We do weddings, we just had a couple of proms, we do lots of meetings, we had the U.S. Olympics luge team here a few weeks ago to have one of their celebration events, and we have the Midwest women’s sailing conference here every May. We use the whole space because it has access to the lake, the harbor and our boats; we have room to sit 150 people. Our balcony is well-used because it has the best views of the city.
So, if I wanted to sail, how would I get in touch with the Sailing Center to find out more?
We have a website that’s pretty easy to use and self-explanatory. It’s sailingcenter.org. You can also call us at 414-277-9094, or you can just walk in; we encourage people to come down. And we love people with absolutely no sailing experience. As of today, we’ve already taught 312 new students. We still have 15-20 classes to go this summer. We have a lot of people say that they’re a little afraid of the water and it’s maybe a little scary, but Lake Michigan is just too beautiful to miss. In two or three weeks, these people can learn how to sail. Once you’ve passed the class and become a member, you can use any of the boats we have at no additional charge.
