DATE: Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
TIME: 1 p.m.
LOCATION: The boat ramp at Captain Doug’s Airboat Tours, 200 Collier Ave., Everglades City
UPDATE: Ten teenagers will see a week’s worth of hard work set sail in Everglades City on Friday.
That’s when they’ll launch a wooden row boat that they built themselves into Lake Placid in Everglades City as part of the Collier County Sheriff’s Office’s Build-A-Boat Youth Program.
The program is in its first year and is designed to give youngsters first-hand experience in woodworking and boat-building and job skills that will stay with them the rest of their lives. It also aims to build pride among participants and positive relationships between the teens and CCSO.
The teens, all from the Everglades City area, have been building a 12-foot, 450-pound Bevin’s Skiff at the fire station in Everglades City since Monday.
“We have a boat that’s just about completed,” Lt. Harold Minch said from Everglades City on Wednesday afternoon.
Minch, who is in charge of CCSO’s Safety Traffic Enforcement Bureau, is overseeing the construction of the boat.
He said the group will return Thursday to sand and paint the vessel. They’ll spend Friday morning putting on the finishing touches before loading the boat into the water for the first time in the afternoon.
Click here to watch a video of participants building the boat.
MEDIA NOTE: Reporters who are unable to cover Friday’s boat launch are welcome to check out the program Thursday anytime from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Everglades fire station, 201 Buckner Ave., Everglades City.
Participants in CCSO's Build-A-Boat Youth Program construct a wooden row boat in Everglades City on Wednesday. The group of 10 teens are set to launch the hand-built boat on Friday afternoon. Photo by Efrain Hernandez/CCSO
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Original news release, posted Aug. 6, 2009
CCSO To Launch Youth Boat-Building Program
WHAT: CCSO Build-A-Boat Youth Program
WHEN: Aug. 10-14, 2009
TIME: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
WHERE: Everglades fire station, 201 Buckner Ave., Everglades City
They’ve spent most of their young lives around boats, and next week 10 Everglades City-area teenagers will come together to build one for the first time.
The teens will be participating in the Collier County Sheriff’s Office’s Build-A-Boat Youth Program. The pilot program is open to Collier County teens ages 13 to 17, but is geared toward giving youngsters first-hand experience in woodworking and boat-building and job skills that will stay with them the rest of their lives.
The overall goal is not just to build a boat. The program also aims to build pride among participants and positive relationships between the teens and CCSO.
“We wanted to do something for youth in the middle schools and high schools because they seem to be the ones who get dropped through the cracks,” said Lt. Mark Cherney of CCSO Special Operations and one of the program’s organizers. “There are not a lot of youth programs for them.”
While the program is being launched in Everglades City, CCSO’s goal is to construct three of these boats over several weeks next summer in various locations around Collier County. The hope is to make this an annual program in a continuing partnership with the Marine Industries Association of Collier County Foundation, which is sponsoring the pilot program and picking up the cost. Graduates would be program mentors in future years.
Participants will spend the week with CCSO deputies constructing a Bevin’s Skiff at the fire station in Everglades City. When completed the wooden rowboat will measure nearly 12 feet long and weigh 450 pounds. The teens and deputies will launch the vessel Friday in Everglades City; the time and exact location have yet to be determined.
Lt. Harold Minch, who heads-up CCSO’s Safety and Traffic Enforcement Bureau, will oversee the construction of the boat each day. Minch has experience in building similar vessels. He attended a wooden boat building school for eight days in Newport News, Va., in 2001, the same year he built a 17-foot mahogany ocean kayak, which he said he recently refinished.
Building a boat with his own two hands gave Minch a great sense of satisfaction as well as pride in his work. He hopes the teens’ will share a similar experience in Everglades City.
“I have something that’s timeless; it’s one-of-a-kind,” Minch said.
The boat the teens will build in Everglades City will be donated to CCSO’s Junior Deputy Camp to be used for youth programs.
In addition to building a boat, the teens will learn about boating safety.
Each day during lunch deputies from CCSO’s Marine Unit will present a safe boating course for the teens. At the end of the week the teens will be able to take the test for a boating safety education card, which is required for anyone younger than 21 in order to operate a boat in Florida.
Randy Ward, president of the Marine Industries Association of Collier County Foundation, said the program is a natural fit with the Foundation’s mission of boater education and safety.
“One of the goals of the foundation is to get youths into boating and this is a great way to do that,” Ward said.
