It was four years ago when Maude Laurence first came to Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating (CRAB), an Annapolis-based nonprofit that offers sailing instruction to people with disabilities, recovering warriors, and at-risk youth. She came to sail with her husband, David, who had been disabled and confined to a wheelchair after suffering an aneurysm in 2012.
David had discovered the organization while undergoing treatment for a second aneurysm at Walter Reed Hospital. As David’s full-time caregiver, Laurence remembers her husband struggling with daily routines that were once easy.
“You’re stuck in this very small world when you’re in a wheelchair, and you can’t get beyond it,” Laurence says. “Here [at CRAB], people are saying, ‘We’re going to get you beyond it, and we’re not going to charge you for it.”
CRAB was a blessing to them, a cathartic escape from the challenging routines they had come to know. According to Laurence, David was a sailor but hadn’t been on a boat in years.
“[I remember] the joy that it brought to his face, of getting out of his chair and actually sitting on a boat again,” she says.
It was just a 45-minute sail, but Laurence would never forget it. David passed away two weeks later due to complications with his treatment. “I went from being a full-time caregiver to having a lot of time on my hands,” she explains. “I was sitting there like, ‘Okay, what am I going to do with myself?”
Two weeks after her husband’s passing, Laurence went back to CRAB to volunteer. She hopped on a boat for her second sail, this time as a crew member. She has volunteered every season since and has become the organization’s top crew member. She’s made it such a big part of her life that she put in more hours than any other volunteer the past two years.
As part of the crew on one of the 22-foot sailboats, Laurence is in charge of putting up and taking down the sails, getting the lines out, and working with and talking to the guests onboard. “She has a perpetual smile on her face,” CRAB Executive Director Paul Bollinger says. “Based on her life experience, she knows how to work with our special guests far better than anyone.”
According to Laurence, the organization continues to grow and improve each year. Since she began volunteering, CRAB has added several new programs, including weekend clinics, summer camps, and special events for organizations like Special Olympics and the Wounded Warrior Project. Currently, to accommodate its growing numbers, the organization is working on relocating from its current base of operations in Sandy Point State Park to an adaptive sailing center in Back Creek.
This new adaptive sailing center will be more wheelchair friendly than their current location, and will allow CRAB to acquire more powerboats to help run regattas and offer different kinds of boating experiences. CRAB also hopes to offer paddle boards and kayaks in the future, too.
“Not only will we be able to keep the six boats that we have,” Laurence says, “but we’d also like to bring in a pontoon boat that we can actually wheel wheelchairs onto, take people fishing, or just take them out on the bay for a cruise.”
Over the years, Laurence has developed a close relationship with the organization, its cause, and the people who surround it. She has seen the program change and develop, and hopes that this growth will continue for both of them. “I think CRAB does as much for me as I might do for the organization,” she says. “They’ve been instrumental in helping myself grow and figure out who I need to be this next half of my life. They help me as much as I help them in a lot of ways.”
For now, she is just happy to give guests the same experience with CRAB that her husband enjoyed. “When you take somebody out who doesn’t get the opportunity to be on the water, it’s pretty incredible,” she says. “The joy on people’s face when they get off that boat is worth it every time.”
For more information on Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating, visit crabsailing.org