Sea Shanties

Haul away JOE

Fishing in Boston

What's up guys, this week was all about stepping outside of my comfort zone. Now this is a really scary thing to do, yet I am proud to say I survived! It's like you do all this overthinking about what could possibly go wrong but then the experience was not even as bad as you thought it would be. Now, if I can do it then certainly everyone is capable of taking that big step forward.

We began by meeting the BCYF Jackson Mann and YES programs at the Pop Up Museum in the North End. It was a quiet, cloudy morning that felt like the rain would be coming any minute now. Anyone who'd have taken a look inside the museum could see how alive and

Fish Printing!

boisterous it was. David taught the youth a lesson about the famous tale of the lady in black. Signaling us by beginning to switch the subject to the importance of team work and leading us to sing a sea shanty for them. And so we sang, "WAY HAUL AWAY, WE'LL HAUL AWAY TOGETHER, WAY HAUL AWAY WE'LL HAUL AWAY JOE!" as we went around the circle and sang a different verse I could feel my anxiety rising as all eyes would be casted upon me. I cleared my mind and just sang along. As insignificant as it may seem, singing (when you can't sing) in front of a group of people you just met, makes one feel quite vulnerable or even embarrassed. Rather than shy away I pushed myself to embrace the attention in a different way, a positive one. Yes I may not have been on key but I made a few small people (including myself) giggle. I also encouraged them to sing along and they did. A young man was singing to the top of his lungs and together we spared a few happy moments for each other.

That was my second time singing to a group of kids I just met. To point out my first time earlier that week at Georges where we sang our favorite sea shanty, Haul Away Joe, at the park. If you recognize Georges you'll notice the small playground they have next to the cafe. Well, my staff and I climbed up the mini Fort Warren all the way to the top to sing Haul Away Joe. Being my first time, I was surprised at how quickly I jumped in to sing a verse, since no one else was really willing to. I would call it the most valuable thing I've done so far this summer. These times that I felt afraid or just embarrassed to be singing in front of strangers, I did not quit or try to opt out. It was way outside my comfort zone but I was able to learn from it. Instead of dwelling on the what-ifs, I went straight into it. I wouldn't say that now I am prepared to sing in front of a crowd or anything crazy like that but it showed me that some things are not as bad as they seem.

Touch Tank x Atlantic Wharf

First week, multiple creatures

Lovely Vacation in the Boston Harbor

Summer was off to a late start during the year of 2018. What felt like the longest winter ever, finally came to the end as the week of July 4th welcomed the Boston Harbor with warm winds and sunshine. Save the Harbor is back into action and the team this year has got plenty of tricks up their sleeves to give the youth what they need to have a fun summer. 

My first day back went smoothly over at Piers Park. We started the day with a game of "The west wind blows" where we learned each other's names. Next we played Indian Chief, which to my surprise, the kids were fairly slick enough to go unnoticed by the guesser throughout multiple rounds. Before we headed down the dock we went over simple, but pretty important rules, then our day began. I spent a good time fishing with this one boy, Ismael. For an 8 year old, he sure did know a lot about NASA and our solar system. When I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he told me, "I want to work for NASA". He seemed to have his heart set on creating rovers and spacecrafts for them. It all started when I told him about how the tide comes in and out about every six hours. Ismael immediately began to tell me about the creation of the moon which led to more.

After a few minutes of fishing, Nieomi asked me to join her and Wesley on a kayak ride. In the water we paddled around the dock to see what all the fuss was about, another set of kids on a kayak were going crazy trying to catch a moon jelly from under the bridge. As we paddled under we spotted another and they grew happier to the sound of TWO jellyfish! Luckily, the jellies eventually made it around the dock in time for Garret to pick them up and show them to the kids. We spent the hot morning and afternoon session fishing and kayaking. What better way to spend my first day back?

Fishing

Proper Technique

Day two and three, we join Kharliyah on All Access Boston Harbor to George's island for the hottest Tuesday yet. The sun rose early and the rays shined bright on this day. We greeted about 200 camps and families at the pavilion each day who were all eager to ride the boat over to the island. Tuesday I met a wonderful pair of best friends who had never been to the island before. I asked them if they were planning to go into the dark tunnel and they insisted they would even if the black lady spooked them a bit. I informed them of our fishing lessons that would be on dock after lunch if they wanted to stop by and learn. I met them later that day at exactly 12:30pm on the dock and they told me about their adventure into the tunnel as well as the Island. They were most excited about the tunnel and being able to try fishing because these were things they never done before. I felt proud and helpful to be able to give them a good experience. These girls were not at all intimidated by the claws of the crabs or by the heat of the sun. They were good listeners and very patient when it came to fishing. Although we did not catch any fish, we enjoyed observing the crabs and talking about what kinds of fish they could pull out of the harbor. 

Fishing = Patience

Thursday was another incredibly hot day and I met a lovely family from the UK who had just moved into Boston. They were most intrigued and interested in fishing more than the island. When they saw the amount of crabs we had in our touch tank that morning they went wild. Most surprised about the different types of crabs we had in our tank, they wanted to touch them all and hold one of each. We caught a few giant Jonah Crabs that morning and a few, slightly small red rock crabs, along with some feisty green ones.

Fairly new to Boston, I informed them about a few must visit places like Prudential center and tower as well as the Children's Museum. They told me they really enjoyed our trip so I encouraged them to sign up for one of our Spectacle Island trips! The kids liked the sound of that and I let them know they could sign up online if they google-d Save the Harbor All Access Boston. The family was sure they would aim to return in August. I ended my week where I started, at Piers Park on Friday. We led an environmental lesson on the salinity of water that morning after kayaking and fishing by the dock. I helped Meaghan at station 1, where we used refractometers and learned about how salt gets into our oceans. One of the kids, Ferdinand knew lots about Estuaries. They were in amazement at the lack of salt we found was in our harbor compared to filtered water with sea salt we added. They measured the buoyancy of water with eggs and understood why it was necessary for marine life. 

18 crabs and counting

Will it bite me?

Learning something new everyday,

Kharliyah

These Skates Must Love Me

Hi everyone,

Its Andrea back again to wrap up the week at Gegorges island. Yesterday, was the end of the week out on Georges island. It was really hot out but Kharlyia and I made it through fishing. We had about five different groups that had signed up for fishing but only two groups showed up. With that being said, the two groups that showed up had more time than usual to fish. They were really small groups too. The first group only had three kids and the second group had about ten. When those groups were fishing, they did not catch anything on the fishing rods but they did catch lots of crabs in the crab trap. Once the groups were done fishing, they went about exploring Fort Warren because many of them had never been to Georges island before.

The last hour or so, Kharlyia and myself were left alone on the fishing pier. That meant that we were fishing just the two of us. We changed it a little bit. Instead of fishing at the same spot we split ourselves. Kharlyiah went fishing on the opposite side by the visitor center and I went fishing in front of the Boston Harbor Cruises dock. Fishing at Georges is very difficult due to all of the boat trafficking of Boston Harbor Cruises and water taxi coming in and out. Somehow where I was fishing, I kept on getting a lot of bites. Every time I had a bite, I would yell out for Kharlyia and she would come running down to me to see if I had caught a fish. Unfortunately, the bites was not what I was expecting. I was looking for some striped bass but I ended up hooking a skate. Kharlyia was brave enough to push down on the spiky skate as I removed the hook from its mouth. At first I thought that the skate did not make it but once we put it in the touch tank, it was alive so we sent it back to the ocean. No mattet which site I go, I always catch skate while aiming for some bass. Its like the skates knows me really well or they just love me. Although its not a bass, I still get excited because I get to tell the kids that we did catch something. The kids finds it really interesting how it looks like a sting rat. ai may not catch what I want but atleast I always end up catching something. I am really loving fishing with the kids. I cant wait to catch more and more stripe bass and skates.

Until next time !!!

- Andrea Lopes

All about the kids... No the dubs!!

     A Tuesday morning that started off kind of slow and ugly, from a weathers perspective at least, radically changed after gathering a small group of kids and throwing down the rubber bases... Creating a diamond gridiron for the ultimate, ultimate KICKBALL GAME!

 

  This week the all access crew heads to the beautiful Georges Island. As excited as I was to dock and have some fun with the kids, once the rain began to come down so did the kids in spirit. The rain smacked the windows of the Provincetown II ship and the kids began to get nervous about what was in store for the rest of the day. 

      Once we touched down at Georges Island  the kids and their staff ran off to a quite spot for lunch, meanwhile i ran up to the fort to set up sports.  We started off slow and kids were more excited  about going to the dark tunnel than doing anything else. Thats fine because once running out of there they walked acrossed the freshly cut grass and the diamond shaped kickball field. A game that started off focused on the kids having fun and smiling quickly turned into competition... Friendly competition at least. The kids played hard all the way through and once it was time to board thw boat at 1:45 they didn't want to leave. I told Andy "it's about the youngins', relax with the power"  soon the kids were all about competing lile we were playing for a national championship.

Until next time,
Dex

All Aboard to Georges Island

This week, All Access Boston Harbor headed out for three beautiful days on Georges Island. I joined in on the fun on Tuesday, and played some kickball on the field in the center of Fort Warren. It was a busy day on the island, with 441 youth and teens taking part in the All Access program, and hundreds more on Georges Island with other camp groups!

Groups who took part in the program this week came from East Boston, South Boston, Chinatown, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, Mission Hill, Roxbury, the South End, Lawrence, Somerville, Quincy, Hyde Park, Revere, Billerica, Waltham, Roslindale, and Charlestown.

Next week we will return to Spectacle Island, where we will definitely take advantage of the beautiful summer weather we’ve been having by swimming at the beach!

If you are interested in bringing your youth group or organization out on a free trip to the Boston Harbor Islands this summer, please send me an email at Gaylord@savetheharbor.org  or give me a call at 617-451-2860 x1008!

-Amy Gaylord

Let the Games Begin!

Hello! My name is Maxwilliams Iwuala and I am a rising junior, studying biology, at Stonehill College. This will be my first year working with Save the Harbor/Save the Bay and already it is off to a great start. This past week I visited Georges Island for the first time where I experienced the famous dark tunnel. Although it was fun feeling the adrenaline rush through my body, I am glad to be crossing it off of my to-do list; that tunnel sure is dark!

A fellow Lead Harbor Explorer (left) and myself (right) exploring Georges Island

Norah Dooley imparting her story telling wisdom

The Save the Harbor/Save the Bay staff was fortunate enough to have met Norah Dooley the famous author and story teller, and also her pillaging counterpart, Mary the Pirate. Mrs. Dooley instructed the team how to visualize a memory and then share it using descriptive details from the recollection. Each one of us shared a story in 30 second, 60 second, and 3 minute versions enabling us to not only transmit the full memory to our peers, but also to sift through the details of the story and determine which are crucial to its understanding and which can be left out-- a very important skill when telling a story. All in all, I am very excited for this summer to officially commence; let the games begin!

Ready...Set....SUMMER!

Hi everyone!

My name is Bridget Ryan and I am so excited to be back for my third summer with Save the Harbor/Save the Bay!  During the school year, I teach 8th grade Civics and coach the Varsity Softball Team at the John D. O'Bryant in Roxbury but during the summer I serve as the Lead Teacher in charge of the Summer Youth Programs for Save the Harbor.  With the 100+ inches of snow that fell on Boston this winter, I am ready to break out the fishing rods and lobster traps and embark on another fabulous summer around Boston Harbor.

                                  

This past week, the senior staff visited the different program sites around the harbor and got ready for the all-staff orientation!  On Wednesday, 36 of our summer staffers participated in Save the Harbor's summer orientation.  I cannot think of a better way to kick off the summer than traveling to George's Island, walking through the dark tunnels of Fort Warren, or listening to Nora Dooley explain the art of storytelling as she transformed into Mary the Pirate.

This summer not only will I be managing our summer staff and youth programs but I am also taking on another role as Site Director for the Harbor Explorers Program at Carson Beach.  Under the guidance of the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), Save the Harbor will work out of the McCormick Bath House with kids from around the city will be able to participate in swim lessons with the YMCA, kayaking with Boating in Boston, soccer clinics with America SCORES, fish prints, and other activities with Save the Harbor staff.  Many Junior Program Assistants (JPAs) will be working on Carson Beach this summer and are eager to see what awaits them at the site.

Here's to a great summer filled with sunshine, striped bass, and lobsters for everyone!

Cheers,
Bridget

The Summer Begins

My name is Ana and this year is my first time working with Save the Harbor/ Save the Bay and I'm so excited! I found out about this summer job through my 8th grade teacher Ms. Ryan who I've gone on two service trips with in the past two years. We just finished our orientation and it was not a typical one. We did and learned many new things. The best part of it was meeting the people I'm going to be spending my summer with.


One of the main reasons I'm so excited about this job is the fact that I get to be outside all summer. It's something that is not appreciated by many teenagers. The summer holds boring lazy days for teens where they will be home playing video games or stuck with a office job filing papers. All of us at Save the Harbor/ Save the Bay will be out everyday getting to explore parts of Boston that get looked over far to much and we will be experiencing a new adventure everyday. I also learned how to fish at orientation and I'm sure I'll be learning more and more throughout the summer.

Let summer programming begin!

See you on the harbor,
Ana

Duty Calls..... Time to Return Home

Circa April 15',  Im the tallest in the picture! (Thats a norm for me)

Hey, Guys! My name, if you did not know, is Ahmed Hassan. This is my fifth summer with the infamous Save The Harbor Save the Bay. A little about myself, I recently turned twenty years old (I'm very old), I am a rising junior at Stonehill College, and also the 2014 Boston Harbor Hero! I look at every summer, since my first year, as an opportunity to give back to the city of Boston that does so much for us that we may sometimes look past. I carry a lot of pride in the work our company does for the water quality of the many cities and towns of Mass, and also the children of the urban communities of Boston we serve. I am an eight year resident of South Boston. My neighborhood, West Broadway Homes, is less than two miles from our Fish Pier office, hence why I call my job my second home and not work. It's always a great pleasure to return to Save the Harbor.

During our first week of work we held a full staff orientation, it was such a great time. While learning all the new faces and trying to remember all the new names I found myself stuck. Being the oldest of eight you'd think I could remember names with leisure. This was not the case. I found myself constantly looking to my left and my right to find the "regulars." You know, Bridget, Amy, Kelly, and so forth. But, due to the fact that I am a veteran, I reached out to the few that may feel a little tense during orientation periods. When we went to Georges Island, with the help of John, an SHE, we instructed our crew on the basics of fishing. I believe spiderman says "with great power comes great responsibility" and with this power instead of calling on people who knew how to fish I volunteered the new comers. The outcome was great!

I couldn't be anymore excited for this summer, or could I? We'll just have to wait and find out!

Catch you later!

-Ahmed M. Hassan

Excited to be back!

Hi everyone! My name is Kelly Randall and I am a full time staffer with Save the Harbor/ Save the Bay. I started working for STH last summer as a Senior Harbor Educator, I then came on board as a communications intern for the fall and was hired full time at the start of 2015 to assist with fundraising, communications, and outreach! This summer, I will be working as a Senior Harbor Educator once again- and I could not be more excited to get back out onto Boston Harbor! 

We just wrapped up our summer staff orientation where we were able to meet all of the amazing educators, college students, and high school students who will be working with us this summer. I can already tell it is going to be a fantastic year- everyone is so enthusiastic about working on the harbor with the region's youth and teens! Our orientation consisted of program site visits, getting-to-know-you games, a trip out to the Boston Harbor Islands National Park, and a storytelling workshop with Norah Dooley (also known as Mary Read the Pirate). We all had a ton of fun and I'm sure I can speak for everyone when I say that this summer will be incredible! 

2015 Youth Environmental Education Program Summer Staff

-Kelly Randall-