Reach, Row for Hospice set for Saturday, Sunday on Sequim Bay

By Michael Dashiell • September 14, 2022 1:30 am
Photo by Fran Thompson Wind Child, skippered by Rudy Heessels, one of the perennial participants in the annual Reach and Row for Hospice, competes in a Thursday evening Duck Dodge race in August. This year’s events are set for Sept. 17-18.
Photo by Fran Thompson Wind Child, skippered by Rudy Heessels, one of the perennial participants in the annual Reach and Row for Hospice, competes in a Thursday evening Duck Dodge race in August. This year’s events are set for Sept. 17-18.

Sequim Bay Yacht Club’s annual fundraiser is ready to hit the bay this coming weekend.

Now a decades-long event that has raised nearly a half-million in funds for hospice respite care, the 30th-annual Reach and Row for Hospice is set for Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 17-18, on Sequim Bay.

Rowing competitions start at 9 a.m. and finish by 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 17. Sailboat races start at about noon and finish at about 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 18.

Community members are invited to John Wayne Marina, 2577 W. Sequim Bay Road, to watch the competition from numerous vantage points.

For more about the event, go to sequimbayyacht.club; click on the “Hospice Fundraiser” tab.

Those who cannot attend but want to make a contribution to the respite care fund can send their tax-deductible donation to: VHOCC, 829 E. Eighth St., Port Angeles WA 98362, with “Reach and Row for Hospice” in the check’s subject line.

The event actually began as a bit of good-natured one-upsmanship between a couple of seafaring friends, retired physician Mike Crim and fellow sailor Scott Ogilvie, in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

November was Hospice Month, and a number of local sailors had family members who received hospice services, so the pair and other sailors developed the Reach for Hospice. The original course for the inaugural race in 1991 was a 35-40 mile course to Smith Island and back. But with winds gusting up to 35 knots and an-inch-an-hour rain pouring from darkened skies, the first race was rather difficult. The race was eventually shortened to be within the friendly confines of Sequim Bay.

That first year’s race raised $1,700 for Volunteer Hospice, with the stipulation that it be used directly for patient care and no overhead costs, Crim said.

“We generated a lot of interest that first year,” he noted in an June interview.

The event, now dubbed the Reach and Row For Hospice, raises tens of thousands of dollars each year from competitors, yacht club members, local businesses and community members. The event raised a record $31,114 in 2018 and last year’s total of $30,863 was second.

Total funds raised for VHOCC since 1991 is $433,866.45.

“It’s generated a life of its own,” Crim said. “That’s a lot of money for a small yacht club in a small town.”

Susan Sorensen, a Sequim Bay Yacht Club member and an organizer and publicity chair for the annual event, said this is the only fundraiser the club does and it’s one members look forward to eagerly each summer.

“I think some of us realize we might need hospice [at some point],” Sorensen said. “We have seen some of our fellow club members need the services of hospice; it becomes more meaningful.”

For more information about the event, contact Sorensen at starlady@olypen.com.

For more about Sequim Bay Yacht Club, visit sequimbayyacht.club.