Endeavour Community Sailing, a non-profit educational sailing organisation that leverages sailing as a platform for teaching experiential education and building confidence and skills amongst Bermuda’s young people will benefit from a multi-year sponsorship from Butterfield & Vallis.

Over the next 3 years, Endeavour Community Sailing will receive an annual cash donation from Butterfield & Vallis along with an abundance of fresh fruit for Endeavour’s health and wellness educational initiative for all students across Bermuda that participate in the Endeavour Middle School Programme during their first year of middle school.

Jennifer Pitcher, representing Endeavour Community Sailing’s explains, “We’re elated that Butterfield & Vallis have selected Endeavour Community Sailing to benefit from their support for the next 3 years. Their generous support will help us achieve our mission to engage students from different socioeconomic backgrounds across Bermuda in hands-on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) through Sailing education that builds confidence, teamwork, and leadership skills.”

Spencer Butterfield, Butterfield & Vallis’ Chief Operating Officer states, “We’re excited to continue our partnership with Endeavour Community Sailing as it promotes many positive aspects for Bermuda’s youth and we’re encouraged that healthy eating habits are taught as part of their curriculum in combination with their advocacy of active lifestyles.”

Mrs. Pitcher highlights, “All students attend Endeavour’s school-based programmes for free to ensure that everyone has the same opportunity to participate regardless of their background. We’re grateful for the support from sponsors such as Butterfield & Vallis, along with other supporters and donors including lead sponsor Orbis Investments, that enable Endeavour Community Sailing to increase access to experiential learning opportunities through sailing for young people in our community.”

The Endeavour Middle School Programme incorporates education about the importance of healthy eating and an active lifestyle amongst Bermuda’s youth. This is an important component of the programme as Type 2 diabetes and heart disease are growing problems in Bermuda. The prevalence of Type 2 diabetes in Bermuda is amongst the highest in the world with more than 13% or approximately 8,000 Bermudians suffering from the disease.

Jennifer explains, “it’s startling when students raise their hands to show if anyone in their family is affected by Type 2 diabetes, and typically at least 50% or more of the class have at least one person in their family who has the disease.

Bermuda Diabetes Association Educator, Sara McKittrick dedicates her time on a weekly basis during the school year to inspire students who participate in the Endeavour Middle School Programme to lead healthier lives and ‘Commit to Change’ and adopt healthier lifestyles by eating nutritious foods, hydrating with water, and moving more to be active.

“Students are excited to learn more about healthy eating and often are the ones who are sharing what they know about the importance of eating good foods to power their brains and fuel their muscles for performance. We highlight that it doesn’t matter whether students are involved in sailing, football, cricket, rugby, netball, swimming, or gymnastics, that they should make healthy food choices as diabetes can affect anyone in our community. That is why it’s critical to do our part to prevent Type 2 diabetes and other chronic diseases from happening and help reduce the numbers of people affected through education.”

Jim Butterfield, President and CEO, Butterfield & Vallis states, “We are delighted to see the success of Endeavour Community Sailing and the many young people that are involved. Those who operate sail training vessels and programmes say, quite rightly, ‘We don’t train sailors, we use sail training to teach future leaders – to give our youth the skills and confidence to become productive citizens’.

During the Endeavour Middle School Programme, students are encouraged to reflect on the foods that they eat and consider what foods do for their bodies. The focus on health and nutrition as part of the Endeavour Middle School curriculum was initially inspired by the passion and expertise from ORACLE TEAM USA nutritionist Scott Tindal who dedicated his time to the programme to encourage students to take responsibility for their own health by building healthy habits and turning them into healthy lifestyles. Overall he focused on the importance of eating healthy foods combined with regular exercise toward the goal of eating for performance instead of disease.

Mr. Butterfield, adds, “Additionally, we agree that it is primarily through education about healthy living through diet and exercise, that we will combat Bermuda’s diabetes epidemic. We trust that Endeavour’s programmes will strengthen and grow in the years ahead.”

Catherine Burns from Natural Nutrition has also dedicated her nutritional expertise with Endeavour Community Sailing to highlight the average recommended daily sugar intake for anyone 11 years and older is 30g or 7 tsp. It’s eye opening how much sugar is in sodas and sports drinks.

Sara McKittrick encourages students participating in the Endeavour Middle School Programme to read labels on food and beverage items, along with reviewing serving sizes to determine how much sugar they are consuming. “The key takeaway is that students become aware of the importance of healthy lifestyle choices and commit to making healthier choices like hydrating with water and eliminating sugar-added drinks from their diet. We encourage them to get involved with grocery shopping, meal planning and cooking with their families. Healthy eating is not only important for athletic performance, but also there is strong correlation between good nutrition improving academic performance. We discuss the importance of eating breakfast to ensure that the brain is fueled for performance too, and that students can better concentrate on what they are learning.”

Teachers have also shared their enthusiasm about Endeavour’s focus on health and nutrition as part of the Endeavour Middle School curriculum reporting, “It is a great initiative to increase awareness amongst students about the importance of leading active and healthy lifestyles.”

• Press release from Endeavour Community Sailing