Veterans To Sail The Long Island Sound To Raise PTSD Awareness

NORTHPORT, NY—The fifth annual "Let's Take A Veteran Sailing" event is scheduled for Sunday, July 21 as a collaboration between The Centerport Yacht Club and SailAhead.

More than 140 veterans and family members, mostly from Long Island, will participate as guests on a fleet of at least 45 volunteer sailboats, skippers and crew. "Let's Take A Veteran Sailing" raises awareness for SailAhead's mission, co-founder Sean Duclay stated via press release.

SailAhead is a not for profit which aims to use sailing and the ocean as a therapeutic platform to help heal veterans who suffer from PTSD, raise awareness of PTSD and veteran suicide, as well as honor those who have taken their lives.

Special SailAhead guests this year will be "Our Mates" and some of their families. "Our Mates" are the name tags of 219 veterans who took their lives because of PTSD or an inability to re-adapt to civilian life. As part of the welcoming ceremony, SailAhead will honor the memory of those 219 veterans by having surviving family members present to make sure that they and their deceased loved ones are not forgotten.

The sailing event will last all afternoon. The flotilla will sail together on the Long Island Sound, and a helicopter will fly through the fleet to take photos and video.

To learn more about this event or SailAhead in general, you can visit www.SailAhead.org or email Sean Duclay at sean@sailahead.org or call him at (631) 662-9132.