Leaving Maine
July 16, 2006
Our Visit to The Compass Project:
On our last day, we headed down to Portland to check out what was happening at the Compass Project. It was about 2oo degrees in the city - I was sporting a good-size reggae-love hangover and my booty was tired from 5 non-stop hours of groovin' to Inner Visions the day before. I wasn't sure that hanging out with a bunch of inner city kids in a hot, stuffy tent was going to be all that much fun. They so proved me wrong....
The Compass Project is a community based project that teaches kids to build boats. Of course, they end up building so much more than a row-boat in 3 or 4 days. Every kid there (and some adults too!) went home with a boatload of team building skills, self-confidence and a sense of real hands-on accomplishment.
I saw kids as young as four years old standing on up-ended milk crates so they could sand and caulk their vessels. I chatted up one team - a mom and her two sons , 9 & 11 - and learned that the boys had received tools from mom at Christmas and she thought this was a great way for them all to learn how to use them together. Sweet idea, no? I'll have this picture in my head forever now of two grown men building a beautiful house for their mother some day...
The group of young ladies below called their group "Gurl Power" and told me that they were thinking about painting their boat pink. I thought that was a cool idea and suggested their motto be: "Pink Don't Sink!"
Notice that I am the same height as the members of 'Gurl Power'. (i'm the one with the hangover in case yur having a hard time finding me) They thought that was rather amusing and ripped on me for it. These are some cool chicas. I was tempted to hang around for a few more days to see them 'put in', but sadly enough, 495 south was calling my name.
When traveling, attempt to seek out & support these kinds of projects. In less than an hour, I felt like I really learned something about the lives of these kids and that memory will stay with me for a long time to come. Pink rules.
"The kids build the boat... and the boat builds the kids."
To find out more about TCP visit www.compassproject.org
Our Visit to The Compass Project:
On our last day, we headed down to Portland to check out what was happening at the Compass Project. It was about 2oo degrees in the city - I was sporting a good-size reggae-love hangover and my booty was tired from 5 non-stop hours of groovin' to Inner Visions the day before. I wasn't sure that hanging out with a bunch of inner city kids in a hot, stuffy tent was going to be all that much fun. They so proved me wrong....
The Compass Project is a community based project that teaches kids to build boats. Of course, they end up building so much more than a row-boat in 3 or 4 days. Every kid there (and some adults too!) went home with a boatload of team building skills, self-confidence and a sense of real hands-on accomplishment.
I saw kids as young as four years old standing on up-ended milk crates so they could sand and caulk their vessels. I chatted up one team - a mom and her two sons , 9 & 11 - and learned that the boys had received tools from mom at Christmas and she thought this was a great way for them all to learn how to use them together. Sweet idea, no? I'll have this picture in my head forever now of two grown men building a beautiful house for their mother some day...
The group of young ladies below called their group "Gurl Power" and told me that they were thinking about painting their boat pink. I thought that was a cool idea and suggested their motto be: "Pink Don't Sink!"
Notice that I am the same height as the members of 'Gurl Power'. (i'm the one with the hangover in case yur having a hard time finding me) They thought that was rather amusing and ripped on me for it. These are some cool chicas. I was tempted to hang around for a few more days to see them 'put in', but sadly enough, 495 south was calling my name.
When traveling, attempt to seek out & support these kinds of projects. In less than an hour, I felt like I really learned something about the lives of these kids and that memory will stay with me for a long time to come. Pink rules.
"The kids build the boat... and the boat builds the kids."
To find out more about TCP visit www.compassproject.org
posted by Lili at 8:27 AM
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