Growing up in the Hudson Valley, Bridget Kenny attended the Great Hudson River Revival with her parents, listened to Pete Seeger’s music, and encountered the sloop in the 1980s at the Strawberry Festival in Newburgh. A few years later, she sailed on Clearwater for the first time as a fourth grader. Now Bridget is a Clearwater member and science teacher at Ossining High School, sailing with her students each season.

“I remember being told we could come back and volunteer,” Bridget recalls. “That stuck with me.”

And she did come back. At 21, freshly out of college, she volunteered aboard the Mystic Whaler, a schooner the organization operated for 23 years alongside the Clearwater for school field trips. Soon after, she returned to Hudson River Sloop Clearwater as an AmeriCorps volunteer with our shoreside Tideline Program, visiting classrooms from Kingston to Yonkers. Through Tideline Bridget discovered something important: she wanted to teach every day. “It made me realize I wanted to teach kids in the classroom,” she said.

Today, Bridget teaches Environmental Science at Ossining High School. Each season, she brings her students aboard for Clearwater’s Sailing Classroom Program, the same transformative experience that shaped her own path. While onboard, students explore water chemistry, biodiversity, navigation, field testing, and the power of environmental action. “Being on the sloop enhances everything we do in the classroom,” she says. “Students learn science by doing science.”

Following spring field trips with Bridget, two of her students returned to Clearwater for Young Women at the Helm, a no-cost three-day adventure of science and self-discovery for teens ages 14-18.

Stories like this reinforce why Bridget is a Clearwater member: she believes in the power of local impact. She is proud to support an organization that protects the environment, creates meaningful opportunities for the next generation, and stands up for LGBTQ+ rights. At an even more fundamental level, each sail aboard Clearwater is a homecoming, reminding her “who I am, what my values are and what the river means to me.”

You can join Bridget and thousands of Clearwater members to keep us educating, advocating, and sailing. Support our work today.

If you have questions about membership, contact Donor Relations Coordinator, Laura Freeman at laura@clearwater.org.