Revere receives $35,500 in Better Beaches grant funding

Save the Harbor/Save the Bay granted over $300,000 to community and youth serving organizations on Tuesday, May 6th for the 2025 Better Beaches Program Partnership with the Department of Conservation and Recreation. Revere will receive $35,500 in grants to host free beach events and programs all summer long.

Better Beaches works with locals to create free events on area beaches which are designed to connect people with Boston Harbor’s beaches. The program places strong focus on breaking down barriers for people of color, people who don’t speak English as a first language, and people with disabilities. Funds for the program come from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and from Save the Harbor’s annual JetBlue Shamrock Splash fundraiser.

“This year has brought many new challenges facing organizations like Save the Harbor,” said Chris Mancini, executive director of Save The Harbor. “So, we’re particularly grateful to be sharing these spectacular urban natural resources in a state that understands the value of our 40-years of work.”

“We are especially grateful for our long partnership with the Massachusetts DCR,” Mancini continued. “Not to mention the stalwart support from the Healey/Driscoll administration and the Metropolitan Beaches Commission, as well as from JetBlue and all of our corporate partners whose support allows us to activate our beaches all summer long.”

The 80 groups receiving grants this year are based in all the metropolitan beachfront and waterfront communities, as well as a dozen surrounding cities and towns. The grantees will bring free programming all summer long to13 beaches in Nahant, Lynn, Revere, Winthrop, East Boston, South Boston, Dorchester, Quincy and Hull.

“Expanding access to public spaces like our beaches is one of the ways Save the Harbor makes our whole state stronger through community engagement and awareness of harbor and beach ecology,” said MBC Commissioner Representative Jessica Giannino added. “It’s inspiring how Better Beaches expands engagement with ecology by creating personal connections to our fantastic state beaches.”

“Not to mention making the beaches a blast all summer!” added Maya Smith, Better Beaches Program Director. “We’ve seen firsthand how much a good time can maintain and expand ongoing public investment in the Harbor. The lively Better Beaches activations are at the core of that success.”

Since the program began, Better Beaches has supported over 2,100 free events and programs and leveraged over $7.3 million in state and local investment in our beachfront and waterfront communities. Meanwhile, this year’s Better Beaches events are expected to draw nearly 500,000 attendees to over 200 free events and programs.

These free events happen almost every day of the summer, right into the fall. Some of the Better Beaches events happening on Revere Beach include All Abilities Day Out at Revere Beach, Kite Festival, International Sand Sculpting Festival, Access Culture’s World Music Concert Series, and Revere Arabic Community’s Kids for the Coast: Beach Discovery Day, among several others.

“I am proud and excited by the diversity of the Better Beaches partners,” said DCR Commissioner Brian Arrigo. “Working with Save the Harbor to improve the life and access to the waterfront for all visitors to our neighborhood shows how vibrant a community we have in the Commonwealth and how DCR’s beaches can welcome and serve everybody.”

Better Beaches programming kicks off in late May and continues through mid-September. You can find full listings of about 200 summer events at www.SaveTheHarbor.org.