Celebrate Day 6
— Celebrate Dharma Voyage —
Day 6
Youth Boatbuilding
BEN BOOTH
In 2015, Dharma Voyage launched “Boatbuilding in Westport” in collaboration with the Westport Community Schools. I think this program is the perfect example of how the power of an idea matched with the belief in its possibility can wind up with incredible results.
When I first presented the idea of “we should do a boatbuilding program at the school,” Marilyn Packard-Luther must have heard something call her. She stepped directly into the role of making it happen. Something about our joined belief in this program spread out into the community. Dianne Baron of the Westport Education Foundation also became an early champion of the idea, and put her considerable talent behind the program, along with bringing the WEF onboard. Jim Rathmann of the Rathmann Family Foundation became very enthusiastic and became a critical aid in bringing Dharma Voyage up to a new level of capacity. Ann Dargon, then Superintendent of Schools, took a huge leap of faith and opened her mind and arms to this program that, at that point, was nothing more than an enthusiastic idea pitched with passion. And, of course, the Dharma Voyage community supported this initiative through the generous input of their volunteer time and donated funds.
With a go-ahead from the school, it was a scramble to find a location. The Titcomb Brothers manufacturing on Forge Rd, without hesitation, donated a section of their building for the program, and we were now seeing the idea become real.
In short order, Marilyn had stirred the whole town into participation, and we had the Historic Society, the Westport River Watershed Alliance, the Fishermen’s Association, and numerous individuals from the community doing presentations within this semester-long program.
The program just grew and grew. It became a for-credit course. Jon Aborn, who was originally brought on as an assistant, turned out to have this amazing ability to teach teenagers how to build boats, manage timelines, and take responsibility for their work, and took over the teaching as our Master Boat Builder. The students started creating their own textbooks for the class, emphasizing personal autonomy in their learning journey and bringing in a strong Place-based learning initiative as they created content unique to themselves and their town.
We should be proud of this program. I think it can stand up to any program across the country, and is a remarkable example of public school – community non-profit collaboration. Dharma Voyage has made a permanent mark in our local youths’ Education. This is now “set in stone” as the new school building includes a Maker Space to move Boatbuilding in Westport onto school grounds as the foundation of an ongoing, hands-on STEAM education opportunity.
One day, at Hixbridge Landing, the boats were coming in from a community row. A teenager who was messing about around the water at the time called to his friends, “Hey, I built that boat!”
I think the best way to celebrate this program is to turn it over to pictures!