May 31,2013

Students' skiffs hit the water in Essex

Middle-schoolers launch boats they built at museum

Photographs Boat Building – Nancy Dudley (ESBM) Launching - by Desi Smith (GDT)–Article appeared in June 1 edition

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• Manchester Essex Middle School students -- Michael Galli, 14, Faith Palermo, 12, Chris Brosch, 13, Nicholas Curcuru, 14, and Nicholas Barlett, 14 -- spent a few hours on Fridays for eight weeks building the skiffs they launched Friday at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum. Friday, May 31 2013

June 1, 2013By Times Staff Gloucester Daily Times The Gloucester Daily Times Sat Jun 01, 2013, 12:00 AM EDT ESSEX — A group of Manchester Essex Middle School students have gotten a first-hand look at shipbuilding over the past school year at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum. Friday was launch day, when the skiffs the students made hit the water in the Essex River off the museum’s grounds.

The boat building project was funded by the Bruce J. Anderson Foundation, which gave the Essex Shipbuilding Museum and Historical Society $5,000 for the project. The Anderson Foundation is a part of the Boston Foundation, and contributes to programs that promote environmental protection, historic preservation and a host of other causes.

Museum volunteers and instructors and Manchester Essex science teacher Paul Pennoyer all pitched in. The grant itself covered the entire cost, from materials to building three skiffs, with the first two launched by about seven students Friday.

“The whole process has been amazing,” said Nancy Dudley, the museum’s education director. “The kids were very focused.”

Dudley joked it would be easy to tell how well made the crafts were — they would either sink or float.No one needed to worry; the skiffs and the students held their own.