Alice Patten Honored With Lifetime OWSA Membership Award
Published 10:26am on 10 Oct 2024
Over the past 30 years OWSA has grown into an organization with ~250 members, teaching women to sail and providing opportunities to build their sailing skills and network to get more time on the water. As an all volunteer organization this is only possible when members continually and fully participate. Alice Patten has not watched OWSA grow over the past 28 years, but has propelled our growth through her dedication and leadership. As such, Alice Patten was awarded a Lifetime OWSA membership.
Alice joined OWSA in 1996 after buying her Santana 22, Picaroon, which she later donated to OWSA and is part of our current BOAST program. She was an early volunteer as chair of Cruising/WNS in 1997 and 1998. She quickly moved to a board position, serving as Vice-Commodore, Commodore and Rear Commodore in 1998, 1999 and 2000. She stepped back into a Flag Officer position as Rear Commodore in 2022 to fill in for another member.
From 2004 to 2010 Alice served in various Director and Chair positions, including Newsletter, Communications and Race Captain.
Alice chaired the first two years of OWSAs Sail for the Cure event but had not planned on chairing that first year. After getting the idea approved by the board, she found a member who was passionate about the cause and wanted to chair the event, but soon after getting a committee together, that person decided to pursue her writing career back east. Alice met with the committee and found that they had only generated a list of potential donors. "Well," she said, "what will the event look like? Lets serve coffee and donuts when people check in, then send them to boats for an on-the-water game of some kind, and bring them back to socialize and eat afterwards." Everyone thought that was great, but when she asked who would like to be the chair they all pointed at her. And then, with such a great people to work with it just flowed: The committee included Edie Felix whose database kept things organized; Ericka (Packer) Spooner who was a graphic designer and came up with the logo and designed t-shirts, posters, brochures, and registration forms; Annalyse Turner who was a baker and had connections around town to get food donated; Mary Woiccak who suggested and ran the first silent auction; and Linda Wanitschek who wanted to run the on-the-water games. Edie and Linda continued doing those jobs for all 12 years of the event. When nobody else stepped up to chair the second year, Alice didnt want it to die so she volunteered to do it again. After that the chair position was handed off each year and the event had a life of its own. Some years the committee probably had 20 people on it. The whole Portland sailing community got involved and loved it. "To me, and many others," Alice said, "the community building part was at least as important as the fundraising."
Over the past 28 years Alices volunteer efforts have supported OWSAs mission. Her many jobs have included LifeSling trainer; mentor for Single Handing, Cool Maneuvers, and Race Clinic; teaching sections of Sailing Basics and Spinnaker classes; WNS coordinator (part of Cruising at the time), WNS skipper, and BOAT/BOAST mentor.
Most recently Alice was co-chair of the 30th anniversary committee, organizing the grand celebration of OWSA's history.
Congratulations and thank you, Alice.
