About Me

Hello, Save The Harbor, my name is Michael Malpiede and this will be my first summer working with the organization and I am eager to jump into what happens here at Save the Harbor. I am going into my senior year at Needham High School, and am working at Save the Harbor Save the Bay as an intern. In my 17 years of living I have done quite a lot. I have two brothers, one who is 15, and one who is 21.  At Needham High School I play on the varsity golf and varsity lacrosse team and am passionate in each of the sports. This coming fall I will be the captain of the golf team and plan to use skills of leadership that I expect to learn with the Save the Harbor as well as applying previously learned skills.

My most recent endeavor was traveling to Barcelona, Spain in April visiting my brother who completed a semester abroad.  I specifically reference this experience because it is an example of something that I enjoyed and had a lasting impact that reached me even after the trip, much of what I expect to happen this summer in my time working with Save the Harbor.

My brother and I looking over the city of Barcelona 

July first and second was orientation for the staff working this summer. For me this was my first real interaction with the Save The Harbor staff. I had no idea what to expect, I came in absolutely nervous as can be, and could barely even find the meeting spot. After finally reaching the location of the meeting, the frightening process of introducing myself to the seemingly massive group of people began. Though everyone was incredibly friendly and seemed very welcoming, going into a situation where no one is sure of your name or anything about you is always somewhat of a struggle.

After the introduction process was completed the description and expectations for the summer began which made me excited to see what Save the Harbor had in store. Being an intern in a room mostly full of youth group staff, my role was somewhat unclear, but after a few hours of immersion into the group the role didn't really matter, I was more focused on meeting the new people. What I soon found is that the people working for Save the Harbor, especially the senior staff, were very eager to help and make you feel like you belonged. That quality is what stood out for me most during orientation, and gave me some comfort in a time where I was not quite sure what to do.

Fishing and Crabbing at Children's

The first full week of my Save the Harbor experience was spent at the Children's Museum. After hearing this was my site for the week I was immediately flooded with memories, due to the fact that my favorite place as a child was the Boston Children's Museum. I found it almost ironic that a place where I spent so much time being supervised and getting taught, I was now the supervisor and the teacher. I was informed that we would be running a fishing and crabbing station, and I was pretty content with that because I enjoyed fishing myself and knew the in's and out's of fishing. I was confident in my ability to teach the children how to fish and was even somewhat excited to fish myself. Throughout the week their was not much luck catching any fish, even though plenty of children thought the lure was a live fish itself. 

Though the fish weren't biting, the crabs certainly were. The first day we managed to pull up 80 crabs from the fishing net, and the children were even more excited about the catch then we were. On almost every occasion, the children were excited and curious upon laying eyes on the crab. Some were scared, and some were so eager they almost were pinched. In both situations I feel as if they enjoyed looking and exploring the crabs themselves.

The abundance of crabs draws attention 

One interaction particularly stood out to me, and that was with a boy who looked about 7 or 8 years old. His name was Maurice, and not only did he stay at the station for about an hour, he asked the most intriguing questions, some of which I did not know were capable for a kid of his age. For example he asked me "are the crabs this particular color because they need to blend into the rock so no one hurts them?". After hearing that I thought to myself how great of a question that was, and how I did not even know the answer. The intelligent questions came right after another and at one point I was tempted to ask his mother how he was so smart for such a young age.

Rods are set to begin the day 

Though Maurice stood out in my mind, the time of being at the Boston Children's Museum was one that officially introduced me into the Save the Harbor Save the Bay experience. From this, I now have a basis of what the organization is all about and hope to use that knowledge going forward.