Barbara McVeigh and Mark Miglio’s Story. SEA salutes our past heroes.
By Barbara McVeigh. Dedicated to their kids.
Some SEA history:
Around 2005, Mark Miglio and Barbara McVeigh had gotten involved in SEA with lessons only to find out a few months later the organization was struggling to survive. The director had quit and SEA was just about to close its doors because of financial difficulties. The boats had been damaged in storms and there was little vision going forward.
Moral was down. In the final weeks the board met wondering what to do, one board member said “Come on you guys, we can take the last $500 and just throw a grand party and be done with it all!”
But, too many members just could not agree with that.
Barbara and Mark decided to do the crazy thing - as a young family, they agreed to take a second mortgage out of their house, quit their day jobs and go for it. Mark took on the director position. And with two young children in tow, Barbara worked on rebuilding programs, community relations and outreach.
Classes were redesigned, grants were re established and partnerships with Felecia Gaston, Fish Restaurant, schools in the Canal and other programs began to be revitalized. Races were scheduled, weekly open sails were created and Mark Miglio and some other members found Dezi as “the clubhouse.” The moral was rebuilding!
For the next several years other SEA members stepped up and took on exceptional leadership roles with organizing flotillas down the Petaluma River, Farrallon Islands or Stinson Beach. Frank Lawler and Mark Miglio, along with some others even sailed to Tomales Bay.
John Paul, Kenichi Uyeda, Bill Crowley, Wayne McIntosh, Joyce Jones, Leah Pepe, Matthew Davidchuck, Gary, Helen Ghez, Karen Brenner, Katherine Boucher, Katka Letzing, Wesley Frederick, Carlos Grana, Frank Lawler and Cathy Stierhoff were just a few of the folks who really came together to volunteer teaching classes off our docks of Sausalito’s Richardson Bay and made the community vibrant with other contributions.
The years from 2005 to 2013 were filled with community service including beach cleanups, sail making courses, coastguard safety classes, Catalina races on Richardson Bay, meetups and sail-ins to China Camp and Angel Island, full moon night sails and so much more. Barbara continued to help build up the program for the Canal kids and Mark and Barbara designed the Sea Explorers program which laid the foundation for the film Racing with Copepods. New boats and engines were purchased and eventually Mark Miglio moved the organization back to Loch Lomond given the SEA lease got terminated in Sausalito. A big thank you to Loch Lomond Harbor Master Pat Lopez for believing in the program and providing early support.
During the year of America’s Cup racing, more excitement grew. Mark organized tours at the AC’s facility in San Francisco. And SEA member Catherine Boucher even got to race on one of the big boats as a passenger!
Energy was really building beautifully and so many memories were created by this extraordinary group of sailors. Mark Miglio was recognized with a grand write up in Latitude 38 as “Hero of the San Francisco Bay”.
Alas, Barbara and Mark knew that they couldn’t continue on and worked to find a way forward for the organization. It was then that Mark approached Founder Jane Pireth and urged her back to the organization and she did. Barbara took on youth director role but also knew she couldn’t continue on much longer. Barbara reached out to Meg and flew her from New York to surprise her mother at an annual dinner, encouraging her to take on the organization. Meg decided to come back and has continued on.
Before Barbara left in 2013 she wanted to say a big thank you to three members who really gave generously to the organization. She created the Frank Lawler Regatta to recognize Frank who would often be at the docks alone fixing boats without anyone even knowing he had fixed them. She felt that required recognition. John Paul needed to be honored, as he had given so much to many of the sailors and was very much the inspiration behind many of the flotillas and events. So, she created the JP Fund to help underserved kids get out onto the water. Lastly, she wanted to say thank you to Carlos Grana who had helped the organization with film footage and photography. That gratitude grew into producing the film Racing with Copepods with Carlos Grana directing, after they wrote and received a grant from the Schmidt Family Foundation. The project featured not only Meg, twelve young campers and Captain Richard Gillette, but also the great Dr. Sylvia Earle! Barbara stayed on the board for one more year to complete that project, a film that has traveled with the Wild & Scenic Film Festival and even screened at the Tasmanian film Festival, and according to Sail Anarchy, is a now a bona fide cult sailing film.
