The United States Sailing
Association's Community Sailing Council has presented it's prestigious
"Marty Luray" award
to Howard Haines of Norman.
The award was presented at the National Sailing Programs Symposium in Oakland,
California on January 31.
Each year the award is presented to the "individual or organization who
has made an
outstanding and unselfish
contribution to further public access sailing." The 'public access sailing',
in this case, is the
Lake Thunderbird BoatHouse,
a community aquatic center that provides training in boating and water
sports and is run
voluntarily by boating enthusiasts
of the Norman-OKC area. In accepting the award, Haines stated how pleased
and
honored he is to represent
the hundreds of volunteers who have given weekends and even vacation time
towards the
needs of the BoatHouse project.
Dawn Riley, America's Cup and Whitbread skipper
Congratulates Howard Haines
Since retirement from the University
of Oklahoma several years ago, Haines has focused his energy and effort
to help
create and develop the Lake
Thunderbird BoatHouse facility and it's programs. Having been involved
in sailing, racing,
and teaching for over thirty
years, he has been in leadership positions with the Thunderbird Sailing
Club, Central States
Sailing Association, Oklahoma
City Boat Club, and the Lake Thunderbird Educational Foundation.
"Haines' contributions in organizing
and continuously developing the Lake Thunderbird BoatHouse highlighted
the
achievements for winning the award"
according to Les Cummings, Vice Commodore of the Thunderbird Sailing Club
and
nominator of Haines for
the award. Cummings said "thanks to Howard's organizational skills and
leadership in developing
programs, volunteers, and
partnerships, the community now has a facility that is recognized across
the country."
According to Cummings, "Haines'
leadership abilities resulted in over 3,000 volunteer hours to complete
the BoatHouse
project and enable the facility
to be paid-in-full when it opened its doors in April of 2002."