Boston slowly shedding its 'dirty water' image
Nonprofit gives grant funding for beach events
By John M. Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent | May 3, 2009
With water once so filthy that solid waste regularly washed up on its shores, Boston is slowly shedding its "dirty water" image. In fact, public officials say the Boston area coastline - Nahant to Nantasket, Southie to Eastie - could have the cleanest urban beaches in the United States by 2011.
Yesterday morning, one local nonprofit behind many of these efforts gave grant funding to community groups to help local residents enjoy the fruits of this labor.
Save the Harbor/Save the Bay issued $30,500 in grants to 13 local organizations to sponsor events at beaches all over the Boston area. These events, part of the Better Beaches initiative, are all free and include concerts, bird watching, family reading nights, sporting events, and a whimsical pirate festival on Revere Beach.
"This is about more than picking up trash," said E. Bruce Berman Jr., director of strategy, communications, and programs for Save the Harbor/Save the Bay. "Events and programs could bring people together on our beachfront communities."
The grants range from $500 to $4,000, and will help launch events like a beach festival in Dorchester and an "Endless Summer Waterfront Festival" in Hull the day after Labor Day.
Last year, Better Beaches funding helped bring the popular kite festival to Revere. That event was so popular that it has become self-sustaining, with organizers selling kites and showing off their skills. Berman said it will happen again this year without the need for additional grant funding.
The East Boston YMCA this year received $2,000 for a season opening beach day June 17 and a season ending dance in August. Harold Sparrow, senior vice president of development for the YMCA of Greater Boston, said it's important to acknowledge the beaches as hubs of socialization.
"We talk about the Internet and Facebook, but the harbors were the original social networks," Sparrow said. "Harbors should bring people together. . . In colonial times, they were the nexus of creativity and commerce."
The sources of funding are a $25,000 grant from the Boston Foundation, $3,000 from National Grid, and $2,500 from Comcast.
The Department of Conservation and Recreation is donating $25,000 in services and labor toward the programs. Finally, the local groups are raising a projected $57,000 in sponsorships and donations.
This brings the grand total to about $112,000, nearly twice the amount Save the Harbor/Save the Bay was able to raise last year.
Berman thanked all the donors at a ceremony near the waterfront yesterday, singling out the Boston Foundation for years of commitment to clean waterfronts.
Paul S. Grogan, president and CEO of the Boston Foundation, called Save the Harbor/Save the Bay one of the best investments his group has made. Its support started in 1986, when the foundation gave a grant to allow the all-volunteer nonprofit to hire a paid staff.
Cleaning up Boston's beaches and waterways has been a multidecade and multibillion-dollar task.
"We have come almost full circle," said Ian A. Bowles, the state secretary of energy and environment affairs. "Now you see harbor seals and porpoises and water skiers and recreational boaters and commercial fishermen all doing their thing in Boston Harbor, and it's great to see."
Bowles said, "It's a realistic goal to have metro Boston beaches be the cleanest in the nation."
Mayor Thomas M. Menino said the clean beaches made him proud, and credited teamwork among a variety of organizations and levels of government.
"It happened because we're all committed to making sure we have cleaner beaches and water, and the environment is a much more important issue today," Menino said.
