A key highlight of the Annual BWI Annual meeting at the 2019 Miami Boat Show was the presentation of BWI’s Inaugural Scholarship award. A check for $2,000 was awarded to Carly Sisson, currently studying at the University of Vermont. Accepting her award was Daniel Harding, Editor-in-Chief of Power & Motoryacht Magazine and Outboard Magazine. Even though she is still in college, Sisson has already had several feature articles published in the pages of these titles, proving both her journalistic talent and her passion for boating.
Perhaps neither of these qualities should come as a surprise, given that her father is Bill Sisson, Editor-in-Chief of Anglers Journal Magazine and a longtime member of the boating press corps.
Getting to this point for BWI took a lot of hard work, the bulk of which was done by member Robert Beringer, who jumped in and took on all the filings and paperwork required to establish a separate 501(c)3 organization, bank account, and the like. As a result, the BWI Scholarship Fund is ready to continue and grow in the future – and work is already underway to make it even bigger and better next year.
This year’s award was made possible through the generosity and support of two BWI Supporting Member companies. Suzuki Marine, who has been a sponsor the BWI Writing Awards every year since the beginning, and relatively new BWI Supporting Member Chevron Lubricants, each contributed $1,000 to the scholarship fund. Dean Corbisier of Suzuki Marine and Joe DeFina of Chevron Lubricants were both present at the breakfast and helped present Carly Sisson’s check.
Additional details about the Scholarship effort can be found at https://www.bwi.org/scholarship-fund/.