Smooth sailing for Community Boating fundraiser

By Sandra Miller
for Back Bay Sun and Beacon Hill Times
More than a hundred guests nibbled on appetizers and enjoyed libations, elbow to elbow along the narrow rail-lined corridors overlooking the funky yet elegant Liberty Hotel’s lobby three floors below, all to help raise money for CBI’s “Raise the Sails for All” fundraiser.
Women in evening gowns, tuxedo’d youths in wheelchairs and with blind canes, and casually dressed teens all gathered to bid on silent and live-auction items that included a flight to Nantucket, a trip to NYC, a stay at a Tuscan villa, various sailing equipment, and gift certificates from Charles Street merchants.
CBI’s goal was to help match last year’s auction fundraiser purse, in order to help pay for its praised Universal Access program. The program, which launched last year, helps 150 sailors who are blind, in wheelchairs, or otherwise experiencing challenges that kept them from sailing independently.
Marcin Kunicki, the Universal Access program director, called the event “very successful.” CBI is still counting up the proceeds as of press time, but he said, “I do believe we met our goals. It was a great team effort.”
At the fundraiser, it was not only an opportunity to raise money, but for members to relax with each other on land. One of the longest members in attendance at the fundraiser was 38-year CBI member Irving Itzkan, of Beacon Street. He has a lifetime membership card, which he says confuses a few of the younger volunteers. “I had one person ask me, ‘When does this expire?’” he recalled with a grin. “I said, ‘Hopefully not for a long, long time.’”
He was living in New York but working for a lab in Boston, and would drive by CBI with longing. He said to himself, “If I ever move to Boston, the first thing I will do is join that club.” When he got a job in Boston back in 1970, that’s exactly what he did. He seems to have chosen jobs that are close to CBI. He’s a consultant at Harvard Medical School, and for years he was a biomedical physicist at MIT. Over the past few years, he’s averaging between half a dozen to 30 sails a year.
“Every opportunity I get, I am teaching newcomers,” he says, estimating he must have taken about 5,000 students sailing over the years. His son became a Junior member and is now a full member.
“I especially love taking people out for the first time, and hearing them say, ‘This is great, I want to do this for the rest of my life.’” But, he warns, “everyone in my boat works.”
Although she’s not much of a sailor herself, Back Bay resident Jessica Mackey. has a father and cousin who are CBI members, so she came out to support CBI. “I think it’s a great program,” she says. “There are so few things that are inexpensive in the summer. I like the idea that this helps kids learn that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, and that lets them learn something outside, that doesn’t involve them sitting home and playing video games.”
Her friend, Taylor O’Neil of Irving Street, also appreciated CBI’s ability to democratize sailing. O’Neil grew up in a sailing environment -- her father was a sailing instructor in a place that “if your parents didn’t buy you a boat, you didn’t have much to work with.” “CBI is very inclusive. The kids are so much fun, they’re from Chinatown, Newton, Brighton, and they’re all interacting. They learn something thaey’ll have for the rest of their life.”
O’Neil, who works as a WGBH fundraiser, understands the need to raise money for a good cause. “CBI is fiscally responsible and down to earth. They’re all about the kids.”