With West Michigan Offshore celebrating its one year anniversary this month, the importance of giving back was at the forefront of the club’s kick-off event last weekend at Boatwerks Waterfront Restaurant in Holland, Mich.

Boatwerks in Holland, Mich., hosted the West Michigan Offshore kick-off party. All photos courtesy Paul Rose/SeriousOffshore.com

Thanks to strong membership numbers in 2016 and the support of some generous powerboaters, Chris Dekker, WMO’s board president, presented a $6,000 donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation on Saturday evening. The money will be used to grant a wish for a deserving child and family struggling with a life-threatening illness.

“We are grateful to our members and humbled by the support we received,” Dekker said, adding that the club plans on raising money for charity at all of the WMO events planned this year.

Dekker said the club has been overwhelmed by the kind-hearted spirit of its members, and added that he and Jeff Tibbe, a fellow board member who came up with club slogan “Driven Forward By Our Passion…Fueled By Giving Back,” didn’t realize just how well that slogan would be embraced.

Along with the donation presentation, Dekker, Tibbe and the other WMO board members—Kevin Alferink, Derek Powers and Roger Zuidema—discussed the accomplishments of the club’s first year and reviewed the plans for this season. There also was a lesson on safety from a U.S. Coast Guard official not to mention an attention-getting boat out front—the silver 3312 Skater Powerboats catamaran that was on display at the Miami International Boat Show in February courtesy of Douglas Marine founder Peter Hledin.

Thanks to Skater Powerboats and Tyson Garvin for hauling it, the new Skater 3312, which is going to be at next week’s Desert Storm Poker Run in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., and will be featured in a speedonthewater.com story soon, was on display Saturday at Boatwerks.

“We have a great group of boating enthusiasts in West Michigan,” Zuidema said. “But we didn’t understand the number of passionate boaters and the extent of their graciousness and kindness.”

Along with the upcoming charity golf tournament on May 14 at Crestview Golf Club, WMO has a variety of fun events on its calendar, which you can check out here.

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