This whole thing started about 7 years ago.
At about the same time we were looking into starting up The Brickyard, we learned about the Haley Pilot School 5th grade boatbuilding program in Roslindale, which was founded by a young woman, Sarah Besse, who came from the Community Boatbuilding program in Boston. Here’s what she told us:
Building boats develops a variety of skills and habits of mind transferable throughout life. Spatial thinking, nimbleness with three dimensional perception and recall is a key to academic success.
According to the National Academy of Sciences, “We suggest that spatial thinking is at the heart of many great discoveries in science, that it underpins many of the activities of the modern workforce, and that it pervades the everyday activities of modern life.”
Our testing shows that students’ spatial thinking skills grew by 56%. In addition to spatial thinking, building boats is a real-world application of mathematics. It also requires hand-eye coordination, safety skills, and above all, teamwork.
From that moment on, a boatbuilding program like this became a central goal of The Brickyard Collaborative. There were a whole lot of things that had to come together to make it happen. We needed space where kids could work, and set up the project for several days, if not a few weeks. We needed qualified teachers. We needed to find the kids. Call it “crossing the streams”, for the 1980s movie buffs out there., but this Spring it started coming together.
Well, long story short, through the efforts of Frank Grealish, a veteran teacher in the Lynn Public Schools and his partners at Kayak and Sail Lynn, we started to put a plan together. They contacted Community Boat Building in Boston, and we met up with Bob McCarty, who teaches their programs. Community Boat Building was looking for ways to expand their programs into surrounding communties, and it was a perfect match. We found 4 kids in the Lynn Schools through Frank’s efforts, and it was game on for April vacation.
Take a look at the progress photos, you can almost feel the enthusiasm:
The community took notice as well. The Lynn Daily Item ran a little piece on us, here, that got a lot of traffic on Facebook – last count over 2500 likes, 119 comments (all positive!) and 111 shares:
And then there was WCVB, Channel 5 TV. Want to hear what the kids thought of the project? Nothing speaks better than this:
4 students in Mass. build 10-foot boat from scratch during April vacation
Oh wait, that’s not the end of the story, by any stretch. Once the boat is painted and checked out by the shop at Community Boat Building, Kayak and Sail Lynn will have a launch at the Blossom Street Extension dock on June 17th – save the date!
…and one final note. To keep the program running, the Creative Cities Lynnspire Creative Placemaking Grant Program 2023 has awarded The Brickyard a $5000 grant! Our next project? Watch for us in August!
If it’s not too corny, (well, we’ve already quoted a movie from 1984, right?). “I love it when a plan comes together.”
It’s a testament to perseverance, all the folks who’s supported us, The Brickyard, the entire community, but above all, the kids who rolled up their sleeves and built a boat!
Want to help us out and keep the program going? Donate now through PayPal! Safe, reliable, and you can use your debit or credit card. The Brickyard Collaborative is a fully accredited 501c3 non-profit, and your donation is tax-deductible.
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