A Minnow Crossing the Ocean

Welcome back to another post from a fisherman in training! The highlights of this week: a big rock crab, two skates, "stickers", and a fractured toe.

We easily average about twenty to thirty crabs a day at Pier's Park. This week in particular we caught a rock crab that spanned about 7 inches length wise! Luckily for this big guy, none of us were interested in keeping him for dinner, so he was released later that day. Before that happened though, one of the staff that we work with at Pier's Park Sailing Center told me that in all the years she has watched over the kids handling crabs, she never actually held a crab herself! I am proud to say that after this week, this staff member can without a doubt tell anyone that she got past her fear of crabs, just long enough to get a photo with one in her bare hands! #UppingSomeonesSelfieGame

On Thursday I had an amazing opportunity to learn about fishing from some amazing people: Bruce, Sam and Captain Charlie! Alongside Maeve, Mauricio, Abel, Cristin, and Ahmed we each adopted a kid or two for the day to aid them in fishing. Once the boat was out in the waters, it didn't take long for me to bond with the crew. First and foremost, Sam, also known as "stickers," is quite a guy! As kids where squirming in place over the thought of just touching a sea worm, Sam made himself known. One of the neat things about the sea worms that we had as bait was the fact that they have pincers. After Sam said something along the lines of, "You guys want to know a trick on how to not get pinched?," he bit off the end of the sea worm that had the pincers. It was barbaric and I loved everyone moment. I just wish I got it on camera. During this trip I caught two skates! I finally figured out the difference between a skate and a flounder! 

When I play alongside the kids in Sharks and Minnows, I try my best to make sure that the kids are safe and that I am also enjoying what I am doing! On a daily basis, that means I am running full speed to dodge the kids from making me into sea weed (and I am not the only staff to do so)! The kids, other staff, and I all have a blast when we play like this! Unfortunately, due to me stubbing my toe last week, I finally had my injury catch up to me while I was running this past Friday. My "ring toe" was aching and was purple by the end of the first round of Sharks and Minnows. At the end of the day, when the kids started playing capture the flag, one team told me that they needed me. Without a second thought, I jumped into the game and played the rest of the day! 

By Raymond Chai

Birthday Well Spent At Carson

This past sunny and hot Friday was nothing but fun. It was my birthday and I couldn't have spent it better anywhere else but Carson beach with the BASE kids. The morning started with some arts and crafts, soccer, and football. I was doing arts and crafts with a few girls from the BASE camp. They were pretty engaging and really smart young girls.

              Preston and Cynthia 

As they sat next to me coloring and drawing the different types of sea animals, Cynthia and I got engaged in a conversation. We became best friends for the entire day. So Cynthia and I started talking about birthdays and she was telling me how her birthday was July 26th and I told her that my birthday was July 31st. As a gift from me to her, I colored a striped Bass and decorated the entire sheet for her. 

          My gift from Me to Cynthia

As we move on to a massive game of soccer, Cynthia wanted to be on my team so I couldn't resist not having her play with me. She did a pretty good job being the goal keeper even though we lost. After the soccer game, she told me that she wanted to go kayaking with me but she couldn't because she had to go get lunch with her group. I went kayaking by myself after teaching the YMCA kids how to cast a rod. As I was returning from kayaking, guess who I see? Well it was Cynthia! She was kayaking with her friend and she told me to go stay next to them to help push them because the pedals were too big and she was so tiny.

Spending the day with Cynthia and Carson doing different types of activities really made my birthday worth spending it there. She is a really bright little girl who acts and talks much like a grown up. If I could replay Friday with her, I definitely would. 

Hoping to see you soon,

- Andrea Lopes

Testing the Waters at Carson

Learning from the ballnastics master

Carson Beach is starting its maiden voyage as a Save the Harbor Save the Bay site this summer. The last three days we have worked with different organizations that provide great opportunities for kids on the beach. The groups we have been working with are America SCORES, the Dorchester YMCA, and Boston Boating.

America SCORES has had us running around all over the beach with high-energy activities. Each morning we start with a pacer test to see how long we can run between two points under a certain amount of time. The first day I made it to 18 laps, and the second day I made it to 21. Hopefully by the end of summer my endurance will be higher and I’ll be up in the 60s! America SCORES also led a lesson in “ballnastics”, where you learn how to maneuver the ball in many different ways. Needless to say, my legs have been very tired and sore after work!!

America SCORES also provides some enrichment activities. The activity we did on Tuesday was similar to capture the flag but with a balloon. Once your balloon was popped, you had to read the poem that was inside the balloon. We also had to write our own poem about balloons. We all shared our poems to each other and everyone did a great job!!

Some of our finds!

Arianna digging

On Wednesday Boston Boating joined the Carson group. Boston Boating provided kayaking and paddle boarding with the youth groups that came to Carson today. While some kids were out on the water, we took the other kids down the tide line to go clamming. While clamming we found mussels, razor clams, and quahogs. Along with clamming we did a lot of crab hunting. We were able to find Asian Shore Crabs and Hermit Crabs. The best part of the day was when we were all able to take out kayaks. I opted for a paddle board because I have never gone paddle boarding. The key to paddle boarding is balance, and I was lucky enough to not fall off! Out on the water it was a bit windy so it made it difficult to direct our boats.

Back from our first boating trip of the summer

I’m looking forward to updating everyone on the progress of Carson. I believe it will be a great site with many opportunities to have a great time.

Nora