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Sailing for a Purpose - Hometown Sailors Win National Hospice Regatta

  • Writer: HPCCR
    HPCCR
  • Jun 21, 2022
  • 2 min read

Life Matters Newsletter - Spring 2022

We do it because it makes you feel better to take part in a charitable event.

Steve Shaw was not looking forward to his trip to Charleston, SC, for the 2021 Hospice Regatta's Championship in November.

He grew up sailing on the West Coast with little experience with tidal currents, and Lake Norman, NC, tends to be a light-air venue. Plus, he's nor a huge fan of J/22s, the feet provided by the College of Charleston.


"I didn't have high hopes," he said. But then...


After three days and seven races, never finishing worse than second, Steve Shaw and his crew returned home to Charlotte, NC, as champions, carrying the Virginia Brown Inspiration Trophy.


As the Lake Norman Yacht Club (LNYC) website proudly declares, "Steve is the first North Carolina sailor to win this event." And in doing so, Steve and his crew members, Tim Porter and Andre Boissoneault, also shined a light on the community-driven mission of Hospice & Palliative Care Charlotte Region (HPCCR) which has been serving residents around Lake Norman since the organization was founded in 1978.


Shaw moved to North Carolina to race cars, hoping he might be the next Jeff Gordon. That didn't pan out, but he remains involved in racing as a producer for Fox Sports' coverage of each NASCAR season.


"I cover auto racing, but my true passion is boats," he said. "Many car racers are very good sailors," he adds, pointing to how the sports are similar. "In both, you have to be as efficient as you can and waste as little as you can. Any changes you make can have big consequences."


The Hospice Regatta "is a pretty big event at LNYC," he notes.


"We do it because it makes you feel better to take part in a charitable event."


Proceeds from the regatta support programs like HPCCR's Charity Care Program - helping patients pay for the care they need when they are uninsured - and its pediatric grief camp, Chameleon's Journey­ - a weekend camp designed to help adolescents who have experienced a traumatic loss make sense of their grief and powerful feelings.


The hard work put in by Shaw, Porter, and Boissoneault was measurable but also, in a way, short-lived because the next Lake Norman Hospice Regatta was right around the corner on May 14-15, 2022.


Visit lnyc.org or hpccr.org for more information about this annual event.


Visit https://www.hpccr.org/life-matters-spring-2022 to read more from our Spring 2022 Edition of the Life Matters Newsletter.

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