Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, in partnership with Vermont Public.
🎧 This story was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio.
It’s been 25 years since the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Vergennes launched its student boat-building program.
Addison County teenagers in the program spend nine months building a 25- to 32-foot wooden rowing gig. The students start by harvesting lumber out in the woods, and end by launching the boat on its first voyage on Lake Champlain. They’re supported by program staff, including Nick Patch, who founded this program in 1999.
“Their skills, both, you know, technically working with wood and working with tools, and their personal skills — working as a team, learning to function in a workplace — it really develops over the course of the year,” Patch said.
This school year, students from Middlebury Union High School and Addison Central Program have come to the museum two or three days a week to not only work on their boat, but also to explore the watershed, learn the cultural history of the area and practice rowing.
Their boat, once completed, will become part of the fleet of boats used in the museum’s teen and adult open-water rowing programs.
Elijah Aruzza is 16 years old, and he has been building boats with the program for two years.
“I really enjoy the hands-on aspect of this,” Aruzza said. “My favorite part so far has been working with the lumber, because it’s essentially the start of the boat. Like, I’m handling the absolute beginning of the boat.”
That lumber comes from Vermont forests, with help from David Brynn. Brynn runs Vermont Family Forests, an organization based in Bristol that practices light-on-the-land conservation forestry. At the beginning of each school year, Brynn takes the students out to look for trees to harvest.
Brynn teaches the students about growing, managing and felling trees. This helps them learn the bigger picture — understanding where their materials come from, and how to ensure that these materials are healthy and readily available in the future.
“They have a real, tactile, hands-on experience, and they go from boards to boats,” Brynn said. “And it’s transformative for the lumber, but it’s also transformative for the kids. At the end, they’re different people as a result of this process.”
Once in the boat shop, students learn from lead boat builder Sam Gerteis. It is his first year with the program, and he said he has loved watching the students grow.
“At the beginning they ask me a lot of questions,” he said. “And I try to encourage that like, maybe you don’t need to ask me every time — for my sake and for theirs. And I think seeing that change in their ability to decide on things without oversight is really unique.”
Alyssa Smith is a 15-year-old student boat builder in the program. In the workshop, she likes to paint, sand, and use hammers and nails. And she said working on the boat is a good stress reliever for her.
“Hands-on stuff always regulates the brain for me,” she said.
She also said experiential education like this works better for her than sitting in a traditional classroom.
“You don’t feel pressured, you don’t feel tempted to just walk out of class, and you actually wanna stay focused,” she said.
Alyssa said this program has helped her bond with her peers and her family. Her dad practices woodworking, and now that she knows it too, they do it together.
“We’re kind of competitive with each other too,” she said.
Makalya Warner is 16 and is also in the program. She likes sanding, painting and oiling the boat.
“And another one of my favorite things is scraping off the zebra mussels or dirt at the bottom of the boat, she said. “It’s really satisfying and really calming.”
Makayla said she’s proud of the work they’re doing at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, and grateful for the opportunity to do it.
“It’s like, you’re just, ‘Wow, look at all the progress that we just did! We put so much time and effort and hard work into it.’ And you can look at a rowboat and be like, ‘Oh, I remember I learned about how to build that boat.”
Now, as the teens get close to finishing the boat, they’re looking forward to launch day. Elijah says there’s nothing like being out on the water.
“You can hear the oars going against the water. You can, if you look down, you can see sun rays going into the water. You can see birds. It’s absolutely wonderful,” he said. “It’s kind of cool to take out something onto the water that you’ve done yourself.”
This Friday, the students will celebrate their accomplishments. They will parade down to the Lake Champlain waterfront and set out on the boat they have spent the year making while family and friends cheer them on.