S/y Belmont Charity
In addition to the preservation of a central piece of Finnish sailing history, the second corner stone of our activities is to use s/y Belmont and its’ history to do good. For us behind the s/y Belmont project it is very important to be able to share the unique story of s/y Belmont and utilize the wide interest in s/y Belmont by being involved in charity work. Today we are focusing on environmental work together with the John Nurminen Foundation and on supporting several youth organizations in their work.
Would you like to learn more about the pro-bono charity work we do, or are you representing an non-profit organization which could benefit from the support of our s/y Belmont project, please don’t hesitate to contact us to discuss about the possibility of your organization becoming a benefactor of the s/y Belmont project.
John Nurminen Foundation
Since we spend a lot of time sailing around the Baltic Sea, we as many others, have noticed the pollution and eutrophication of the water. Therefore, we have for several years been working together with John Nurminen Foundation, one of the most reputable foundations in Finland working for a better Baltic Sea.
We provide John Nurminen Foundation with several sailing days where they can use s/y Belmont to push their valuable agenda of saving the Baltic Sea. John Nurminen Foundation usually uses these days to take out important cooperation partners and use one or two days a year as the main price in a campaign to raise money for the protection of the Baltic Sea. The feedback from these sailing experiences has been very good. John Nurminen Foundation usually also takes part in Envisail, i.e. a sailing competition organized by the Finnish Environment Institute.
Quote from Annual Report 2018 of John Nurminen Foundation:
“Founded in 1992, the mission of the John Nurminen Foundation is to save the Baltic Sea and its heritage for future generations. The Foundation has been awarded for its work as a conveyor of culture and producer of marine content.
The goal of the Foundation’s Clean Baltic Sea projects is to improve the condition of the Baltic Sea with concrete measures that reduce the nutrient load and environmental risks faced by the sea. Our work is guided by measurable results and impact.”
For more information: www.johnnurmisensaatio.fi
Helsinki Missio r.y. (HM)
HM is a social organization that is providing help and assistance for young people who are struggling in their lives and/or have mental problems and other problems related thereto. Together we are arranging several sailing experiences per season for young people that have big problems in their lives. Together with the young persons’ sponsors we spend about four to five hours to see and having something good to eat at the same time. Many of these youngsters have never been sailing or even boating before, so it is something really new and a great experience for them. In addition, the survival story of Hjallis Harkimo, and s/y Belmont acts as a great encouragement for these youngsters to see that even the seemingly strongest persons are at times struggling and are in doubt about if they will make it or not. s/y Belmont is “living proof” that regardless of all the hardships which the sea of life offers, you are able to “ride out the storm” and come out even stronger than before.
After one sailing trip a young boy become so interested in sailing that he attended a sailing course. Due to his new hobby he managed to get his life changed in the right direction and he is now having a “normal life”. This is probably the best feedback one can get from social and charity work.
Sea Scouts
We are also working with to sea scout organizations, i.e. Vikingaflickorna and Korven Koukkaajat. Even if the sea scouts have their own boats, very few of them have had an experience to sail on a similar historical Swan sailing boat like s/y Belmont. Our goal is to take out the sea scouts for several trips each summer and we also hope that they get so exited about our project that they will like to join as crew members in the future.
