The Buzz: April 2025 Newsletter
This is The Buzz - Mosquito Fleet’s monthly e-newsletter!
Read on to learn about our 2025 season, upcoming events for April, and how to get more involved with the Fleet!
Welcome to the 2025 Season!
The Mosquito Fleet team couldn’t be more excited to get back on the water with you all. We’re thrilled to have our new Leadership Team in place: 10 fierce and dedicated folks who are ready to steer our organization into a new era (check out our website to ‘meet’ some of our new Leadership Team members!).
As we mentioned in our year-end email, this season we’re expanding not only our team, but our collective’s programs and priorities, with a new focus on disaster preparedness and resilience. Expect hands-on trainings that build skills for mutual aid, emergency response, and community resilience – because when systems fail, we rise.
Of course, we’re still deeply committed to joy, action, and connection on the water. Our Leadership Team is developing a packed calendar of social paddles, skill trainings, beach and on-water clean-ups, and more. If you have an idea for a social paddle or have a request for a specific training, please reach out and let us know!
If you’re interested in getting more involved with the Fleet this year, we strongly encourage you to get in touch, even if you have no idea what you’d like to do yet. There are a ton of ways to plug in, from helping keep our office organized to becoming a Kayak Trainer yourself! We’ll be making decisions about our work this year based on interest and input from our community, so filling out an interest form or sending us a quick email would be super helpful for that process.
Our website calendar will be updated soon, so keep an eye out for our May newsletter in a few weeks; you can also follow us on Instagram to make sure you don’t miss anything.
See you soon!
Get to know RAPP!
Itching to join a Fleet paddle but closer to Seattle than Portland? Check out our friends at River Access Paddle Program (RAPP)!
RAPP is a Seattle-based group dedicated to stewardship of the Duwamish River; like the Fleet, they offer free educational river tours and water safety trainings, maintain a free community gear library, and conduct regular clean-up events on the river. Check out their website to learn more and see upcoming events. f you’re in the area, consider coming out for the April River Clean-Up on Saturday, April 5!
The Fleet and RAPP will be working more closely than ever in 2025; Seattle-based folks should keep an eye out for future developments very soon!
Upcoming Events
Seattle: April River Clean-Up with RAPP
April 5, 2025 | 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Join our friends at River Access Paddle Program for their monthly clean-up event on the Duwamish River. Kayaks are available! Visit RAPP’s website to learn more and RSVP.
Fundraiser for our friends at #WorldOnFireDept
Online
The big yellow Fire Truck is an enduring and well-loved presence on the Portland activist scene, and now they need our help! Harlan is a longtime friend of the Fleet and has done a lot of work to fix up our office at Green Anchors — show the crew some love by chipping in if you can! Click here to give!
Documentary Premiere: The Waste Stream
Trailer online now | Premiere event in summer 2025
Our new fiscal sponsor, Shared Spaces Foundation, will premiere their documentary “The Waste Stream” in summer 2025. Check out the trailer online now, and keep an eye out for the premiere date in a couple months!
Check out the Fleet Calendar here!
Interested in Volunteering with the Fleet?
Have you been wanting to get more involved with the Fleet but don’t know how to plug in? No problem — just let us know you’re interested by filling out a form!
Over the next few weeks, the Fleet Leadership Team will read over the submissions to get a sense of how many folks want to get involved and what kind of work they’re interested in. Then we’ll reach out with more details about what happens next!
Fill out an interest form here!
Become a Monthly Donor!
As a small grassroots organization, Mosquito Fleet appreciates any and all financial support we receive from the community. Recurring donations are particularly helpful to ensure we can continue providing free services and programming to the community. If you’re able to support the Fleet monthly at any amount - $10, $25, $50 - click below!
You can also support the Mosquito Fleet in style with custom gear courtesy of Worx Printing Co-Op, a worker-owned union co-operative print shop! Worx provides this service at no cost to us, so your purchase will directly benefit the Fleet’s work in 2025 and beyond. The Fleet appreciates your support!