- November 21, 2024
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The Anchor Boat Club celebrated its 25th birthday Saturday, Oct. 18, with a picnic at Betty Steflik Park.
The club was founded by Jo Ann Gaulin and her husband, Paul, who served as commodore for the first three years.
“It makes me feel good that the Anchor Boat Club is still in existence and really very active,” Jo Ann Gaulin said at the celebration.
Through the years, the club has taken numerous boating outings, but as the membership grew older, the boating has waned and the club has migrated more toward community outreach and socialization.
Some of the outreach the club has done is raise funds for hospice, Habitat for Humanity and the American Heart Association. The club has collected food and toys for the local food pantries and Toys for Tots and organized a semiannual canal cleanup. The club also adopts families at Christmas and serves eight to 10 families for Thanksgiving.
But more than anything, the club has become a family, and Linda Cohen, a 19-year veteran of the club, has felt that family surround her and care for her through two big operations, one in 2007 and another in 2014.
“In sickness and health,” she said while tearing up a bit, “the club has been very supportive of each other.”
