Waving Goodbye to a Summer Well Spent!

 Hi Everyone!

It's crazy to think that this summer has finished, it feels like I was just meeting my team and trying to dig the deepest hole of all time into Revere Beach. We've had so many adventures this summer, and I was able to learn so much about the history of Boston Harbor, the animals that live in it, and the impacts humans continue to exert on the water. I began this summer with pretty limited knowledge of all the different T lines, and I had never gone fishing on the ocean. Now I feel comfortable taking Boston public transportation anywhere, and I cooked up a massive striped bass that I caught and killed in the harbor! I'm very grateful to have had such an awesome team of students this summer who were interested in learning about the natural world around them and had great insights into all of the social, cultural, and economic factors that affect how different people in the city access green spaces and the water. Shoutout to Ari, Jasmine, Aleena, McRae, Kurtly, Henry, Alex, Albert, and Julian for all of the laughs, serious conversations, and hilarious memes this summer! 

Me with a MASSIVE striped bass during the fishing derby. Definitely one of my favorite days this summer!

The harborbots in East Boston! So grateful to have had such an amazing team :)

I was very proud of the deliverables that my group was able to create this summer. Each week, I would have 2 students from the team be in charge of coming up with a concept for our deliverable then assigning people different parts to work on. Together we would all brainstorm ideas until we thought of something that we hadn't done before. We were able to make species guides, tik toks, informational videos, infographics, and more! My favorite deliverable we made was a set of postcards we created that were written by people living in East Boston during different time periods. By writing from the perspective of people living in the past, we were really able to think through how attitudes towards the harbor have changed over time. As someone who used to love historical fiction books as a kid, I thought this was a great way for younger students to imagine themselves as residents in East Boston while the harbor was a foul and dirty body of water. We were also able to capture demographic shifts in our postcards which showed the impact of immigration on that area of the city.  In our other projects, we also were able to improve our video editing skills and some of us tried out graphic design for the first time by using Canva! 

The last few weeks were spent exploring the Charles River Esplanade and the Harbor Islands, which were both a blast! We welcomed another member to the squad in Julian, and he was a great addition to the team with his energy and sense of humor. After surviving the heat wave together, we spent some much needed time out on the water and harbor islands, where we did our last fishing session with kids and all got to say goodbye through bowling and a picnic! It was so cool to see my team at Spectacle Island on our last All-Access trip because although some had started the summer never having fished before, by the end they all felt comfortable introducing fishing to younger kids, hooking up bait, and showing them how the reels worked! 

Exploring the floating marsh on one of the hottest days of the summer!

Our final picnic! It was sad to say bye to all these amazing students :(

This summer at Save the Harbor far surpassed my expectations! We were able to see so many sites and it was awesome to see my group grow and try new things each week. It was so cool to send some of my students off to college, because I know they're gonna do amazingly on their next chapters, and I can't wait to see where we all end up in the future. Special thanks to Kristen, Bridget, and Maya for doing so much work behind the scenes every day and making sure we had everything we needed to be successful! This summer has really ignited my passion in non-profit work and I'm so excited to meet even more people through Save the Harbor :) 

Sea you all soon!! Can't wait to continue working with everyone in the future :)

-Jason