Back for Summer #3!

Hello, fellow Harbor enthusiasts! 

My name is Michelle Palermino, and I'm back for another exciting summer on Boston Harbor with Save the Harbor / Save the Bay's youth summer programs. This is my third summer with the organization, and my second summer as Youth Program Coordinator. I've been at Save the Harbor year-round since I began here in Summer 2010, and, every year since, I've waited anxiously for each great new group of staffers to fill our office, our boats, our docks, and our sailing centers at the start of each summer. It's my favorite time of year-- and my favorite part of my job! And this year, I truly believe this is the best group of staffers we've ever had, and I can't wait to see all the great work they'll be doing for Boston Harbor for and our region's kids and teens!


The program has grown and evolved so much over the past year, and I'm very excited to be a part of its growth. First and foremost, thanks to an exciting new partnership with Bay State Cruises, we'll be running All Access Boston Harbor trips out to Spectacle Island and Georges Island FOUR days a week this summer, instead of the traditional three. The capacity of their beautiful boat, the Provincetown II, will allow us to bring hundreds more kids and teens out to the islands than we've ever been able to bring before. We've expanded our Harbor Explorers program out at Camp Harbor View to focus even more on Long Island's rich history. We'll be offering tours of the Fort Point Channel at the Boston Children's Museum. We brought groups from all over the city aboard the tall ships (read all about it below!). We're partnering with the East Boston YMCA to deliver programming to their older campers for the first time this year. It's going to be a fantastic summer. And, as I said, I believe we've chosen the best staff yet to see it all through-- especially our enthusiastic team of Senior Harbor Educators! 


Years ago, when the youth programs first started, they were primarily fishing programs. Boston Harbor's water was clean, and we wanted to start to teach Greater Boston's kids and teens how to use it. Fishing was the very first way that we chose to do that. From the early Fishing 101 lessons, our past coordinators expanded the program to include expansive marine science curriculum-- water testing, ecosystem exploration, and so many other fascinating lessons that are still active, engaging components of our program today. But our changes this year have incorporated even more Harbor history and have catapulted our program into an entirely new era-- an era that will bring Boston Harbor and its history even more alive for thousands of kids this summer. I'm so thrilled to be here to witness all these changes and I'm excited to be leading such a great team!


Thank you to all of our program sites for another summer of partnerships, and to my staff for all the hard work they'll put in over the next 7 weeks. Can't wait to share it all with you right here on the blog!


See you all out on the docks this summer...


Michelle