Building more than boats with urban youth

“I decided to make a bent-shaft islet paddle out of cedar, pine and walnut.” said Brian Harper. He sat down to chat with me after slipping into his work clothes, a plain white t-shirt and black and white basketball shorts. With his hair braided, and black Nike sneakers on his feet, Harper looks like a typical sixteen year old, until he starts talking about boats. He smiles as I ask him to spell “islet” for me, slowly. The paddle is for white water kayaking and puts the paddle head at an angle. Nine months ago, he didn’t even know what an iselet was, but he smiles again when he tells me they are currently building a skiff.

Harper is one of about eight apprentices at Urban Boat Builders in St. Paul. The program, which has been around, quietly making traditional wooden boats since 1996, has worked with nearly 2,600 youth, teaching and helping them build over 170 boats. They don’t just build boats though. They also float them, 84 miles down the Mississippi River, to be exact. The Mississippi Passage takes seven youth and four adults on a four-day boating and camping journey from North Minneapolis to Lake City

“It’s a very big accomplishment” said Nhia Xiong, 19, who has been on two of the trips. “I’d never really paddled a canoe before.”

Xiong has been working in the shop for three years now. As an apprentice, he receives a modest stipend for his commitment to continuing to develop his woodworking skills. Xiong remembers the first year he went down the river, not sure if he’d make the four day journey, but continually encouraged by his peers when he considered giving up.

“A lot of them have never really been out of the city.” said Phil Winger of the youth who participate in the program. Winger is one of the boat-building instructors and has been with the program eight years. He’s done a number of outings with youth throughout the years and has stories to show it. He tells the story of one youth a few years back, whose boat outing included flipping over and getting pinned against some rocks. As Winger recalls, the youth said something to the effect of, “I hated this, I’ll never do it again!” There’s more to the story though, as Winger notes that this young man, “came by about a year ago and said that it was one of the best experiences of his life.”

The Mississippi Passage trip has now become a central component of the program.

“It shapes the way that they think about building throughout the year.” says Winger, “If they don’t build something right, they are going to sink on mile three.”

The apprentices spend every Thursday from April to late July either running or boating in preparation, which generates a lot of excitement.

“The most fun part was building and riding in [the boat] and being like ‘woah, this is really smooth,’” recalled Eric Xiong, 16.

A fellow apprentice. Brian Thorkildson, the second full-time boat building instructor, points out the trip from planks of wood to finished product isn’t always smooth. This year they were putting the last coat of varnish on a boat the day before they headed to the Mississippi. “The first day [the boats] hit the water was the first day of the trip,” said Thorkildson.

When asked how he convinces a typical urban teenager to start building a boat Winger clarifies. “Usually it’s the other way around. We have youth who walk in off the street and ask, how do I get into this?”

They might have heard about the program from a friend or passed by the small workshop on University Avenue. Unfortunately, they don’t have an open application process. Apprentices are chosen from youth who’ve already participated in Project Partnership, a collaboration with schools and youth service agencies to expose youth to carpentry and boat building.

Those youth who join the apprenticeship program and journey down the Mississippi learn the program’s four core values: Teamwork, Craftsmanship, Perseverance and Responsibility. When they are done, not only have they gained carpentry and job skills, made friends, and built a boat, but they’ve learned some valuable life lessons as well.

“When you are at the point of giving up,” says Harper, “you need to have the motivation to keep on going.”

Ariah Fine lives in North Minneapolis with his beautiful wife and daughter. He is a blogger, community organizer, and author of Giving Up. Contact him at http://ariahfine.com