Annapolis is called America’s sailing capital, and many of us fortunate enough to have lived and sailed here as a child welcome that moniker. We see sailing as a pleasant pastime — a time to gather old friends and meet new ones. Indeed, the majority of sailors that I know also consider sailing to have an almost spiritual significance: We see the sea, the wind, the elements as the natural mentors in the school of life.

What are some of the life lessons sailing teaches children? Sailing teaches a child self-reliance. It shows how closely intertwined are choice and consequence, risk and reward. Sailing teaches us we must try to anticipate conditions but that the playing field is too protean to be anticipated. Sailing demands adaptability.

Sailing teaches us that being an honorable competitor is more important than being a top competitor because while every race is there to lose, luck is the omnipresent hobgoblin. And as children learn humility, sailing shows them perseverance is the one thing that lies solely within their control. Perseverance is the weapon that enables us to progress from excelling in perfect conditions to excelling in all conditions.

We love our sport because it reinforces these values. But most of us who love the sport also recognize a pervasive and prevailing headwind we cannot deny. Our sport is, in a word, exclusive. And to see this, we need to look just beyond the water’s edge in almost every sailing venue in the world, including here in Maryland. The water and the wind may be free, but just beyond the shore are children who have never been exposed to sailing. This is particularly true for children from disadvantaged families or for children of color, who often are one and the same. According to a survey from the TIDE task force for the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association, “sailors of color comprised less than 1 percent” of college sailors, and not surprisingly, “children of color were half as likely to have learned to sail before the age of nine.”

Our beloved sport of sailing does not have to be this way. Barriers in other sports have been and continue to be dismantled. And the last thing most sailors wish is for their sport to exclude others. Most of the sailors I know wish their sport would have a broader reach.

Money is clearly a barrier, but the exclusivity of wind sports is not a problem that money alone can solve. Dinghies can be shared and passed down used. Clothing too. Beyond resources, to broaden the reach of sailing, what must exist is a sense of belonging, and in many cases, a sense of welcoming. One cannot learn to sail if one has never been exposed to the sport. Someone must take the time to share the joy of sailing with them.

Allow me to make a shameless pitch. One new Maryland-based organization, Make Them Sailors, is designed to address these problems and give sailing a broader reach. Go on our website at MakeThemSailors.org to learn about the organization and see images of the joy that sharing our passion can bring. Make Them Sailors’ mission is to introduce wind sports, whether competitively or for pleasure, to kids in the United States and abroad who otherwise lack the financial means, a sense of belonging, or exposure to the sport. Our goal is to expose disadvantaged kids to sailing and kindle within them the passion sailors share.

Please know that it is possible to change the life of a child by spreading the joy of sailing. We can all help build a global community to enable youngsters to sail and learn the many lessons that sailing can teach. Rigging, launching and sailing an eight-foot dinghy is daunting to a 40-pound child in 15-knot headwinds, yet eight-year-olds do it and they gain self-esteem from it. Help make them sailors, and what we will collectively find is that the challenges, the competitors, the water and the wind cannot help but teach them the rest.

Conor Mastromarco is the youth co-chair of Make Them Sailors (MakeThemSailors.org) and a high school senior at Indian Creek Upper School in Crofton, Maryland.