Tradewinds,
We received our first group of high school students from Central High School on St. Croix aboard the Roseway to officially begin our marine after school program.
These first 30 students will train on the Roseway learning different stations on the boat each day. They’ll learn navigation, sails, piloting and other aspects of the ship.
After a week on board they will participate in a career day where the students will visit different marine organizations and learn of the opportunities and careers offered by the U.S. Coast Guard, DPNR, the National Park Service, the V.I. Port Authority, Fish and Wildlife and the V.I. Police Department.
The purpose of this program is not only to reintroduce our youth to the sea by sailing, fishing and swimming, but also to offer career paths and head start them on marine opportunities available to them here in the VI. and thanks to the grant from Hovensa (Hess), we are able to offer this to both Central High and St. Croix Educational Complex.
Thirty new students each week from our public high schools from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. after school each school day, and 30 new private school kids every week, each morning from 8 to 11 a.m.
This is going to allow us to teach 500 St. Croix students by the end of this school year, and the top 24 students will go on a summer long sailing adventure on the Roseway as the ambassador ship for the Virgin Islands and represent us in all the tall ship regattas and races up north and Canada during the summer, and hopefully go on to be the paid crew aboard the boat and send this existing crew back to Boston and the sailing education will continue for all with what I call the “small boats program,” where they can sail the kats, mono hulls, lasers, sunfishes, and hobie cats we are gathering that they can use each day after school for continued education.
And to make things even better, Alexa placed top 20 in her final world cup competition of the season. SWEET!
Troy Billington
Building Bridges
