Whatever Floats Your Boat

There is a new project starting up today, bringing together the folks from the Hudson Sloop Club and sixth graders at the Hudson Intermediate School. In nine sessions, between now and the end of the school year, Nick Zachos, Sam Merrit, and Ed Csukas from the Hudson Sloop Club will help a group of sixth-grade students build a traditional wooden boat. In the process of building the boat and developing carpentry and construction skills, the students will learn about the history and culture of the Hudson River Valley--from the Native Americans who first set out in dugout canoes, through Hudson's rich history as a whaling center and maritime port, to the modern uses of the river. Embedded in the boat-building process, too, are natural lessons in geometry, physics, chemistry, and ecology.

The class begins today during the students' lunch period and continues during the afterschool program. The finished boat will be launched on Underhill Pond, just a stone's throw from the Intermediate School.

The Hudson Sloop Club is a community-based boat club dedicated to reintegrating the Hudson River into daily life through education, access, and environmental stewardship. The boat-building project is the beginning of learning program for schoolchildren undertaken by the Hudson Sloop Club in conjunction with Hudson Reads and the Hudson Bluehawk Nation Afterschool Program.