The Center for Wooden Boats
SHAVINGS The Next Chart b y
When you are making a long passage offshore, you keep track of your position using charts that show big chunks of the ocean. Periodically, you figure out your position and mark it on the chart; over the hours and days as you navigate through your passage a track emerges, sometimes straight as an arrow and sometimes meandering, depending on the effects of wind and tide. Eventually you get to the edge of the chart and it’s time to pull the next chart out of the drawer. I love this, the moment you can see all the visible progress you have made, look back on the challenges of the passage so far and anticipate the new areas you will get to experience on the next leg of your voyage. This year, CWB’s youth programs have been getting close to the edge of the chart. The chart we’ve been on has seen CWB develop outstanding programs that give youth the opportunity to explore our maritime heritage, learn new skills and develop into productive adults. The just-concluded summer season programs served more than 2.500 youth, more than 700 of whom received full or partial scholarships; this number does not include the thousands of youth who participated in toy boat building at the Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival, the Seattle Folklife Festival and other community events. On the next chart, CWB has plotted a course to expand our outreach to underserved youth through our “Pay What You Can” program and strategic partnerships with other educational and youth service organizations and to add another leg to the passage: our new job skills training program. The Job Skills program is unique in that it will take place both at Cama Beach with four youth Crew Members and at South Lake Union with six youth Crew Members. The roots of the job skills program go back to the beginning of CWB’s effort to engage youth in meaningful experiences on and around wooden boats and the water. In 1991, CWB hosted a conference to develop programs Fall 2011
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preparing their students to succeed both personally and professionally in whatever path they choose to follow. Last spring, Adam Green from Rocking the Boat came to CWB and met with staff and volunteers to familiarize us with their program format and the impact that their program has on their students and community. What was really apparent from Adam’s 2011 Job Skills Crew Members Isaiah D. Chhorn, Iris Alejandro, report was the importance Nick Otto, Troy Joey, Angela Ness and Veronica Ramirez, with of helping students develop CWB’s Youth Program Coordinator Tyson Trudel (right) during a strong interpersonal skills and recent training sesson at CWB. -photo: Chris Maccini the ability to see past their current situation into what is to use small boats as teaching tools for at-risk possible. In May, CWB received a grant from youth. Following that, we added staff to work the Russell Grinnell Memorial Trust to pilot specifically with youth. Those staff members the job skills program at both Cama Beach established programs and partnerships that are and South Lake Union. still a vital part of CWB’s outreach to youth. The seeds that were planted by Dick Wagner continued on page 11 and the CWB community in developing the first youth programs with small boats have taken root, born fruit and are now helping to nourish CWB’s continuing development as a place that provides meaningful experiences for youth in and around small boats. In March of 2009, CWB, the Alexandria Seaport Foundation and WoodenBoat Publications co-sponsored a third Teaching with Small Boats conference, held in Alexandria Virginia. This conference put CWB in touch with a dynamic and growing group of individuals and programs from throughout the country that are using boats to teach everything from science and math to social and life skills to a diverse population of youth and adults. We found inspiration in programs such as the Hull Life Saving Museum’s Maritime Apprentice Program and New York City’s Rocking the Boat, which provide in-depth training in boatbuilding, operation and repair as job and life skills training with the goal of
I N S I D E TH I S I S S UE:
Founder’s Report ................................... 2 News From South Lake Union ................ 3-5 News from Cama Beach ........................... 6 Wendy’s Shoreside Sea Log ...................... 7 News From The Boatshop ......................... 8 News From The Docks ............................. 9 Junior Sailors .....................................10 News From Youth Programs ..................... 11 The Care and Feeding of CWB .............. 12-13 Upcoming Workshops .............................14 Buy a Boat from CWB .............................15 Upcoming Events .................................16 Shavings
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