Maine Maritime Museum’s Discovery Boatbuilding program will commemorate its 20th anniversary this year with an additional $10,000 in funding through a donation made by PC Construction, celebrated at the museum’s boat shop open house last Wednesday.

The Portland-based construction company donated a total of $15,000 to three local nonprofit organizations based on 5,200 public votes that were cast in March through the company’s “Building Communities: PC Construction Gives Back” nonprofit donation contest.

Maine Maritime’s program received the first-place donation, while second place winner, the Hospice of Southern Maine in Scarborough, received $3,000; third place winner, the Tedford Housing in Brunswick, received $2,000.

Kevin McCarthy, the president and CEO of PC Construction, and Joe Picoraro, vice president of the organization, presented the donation to Maine Maritime Museum staff and Woolwich Central School students on Wednesday morning.

McCarthy was impressed with the work the students have completed through the program.

“To come here and see this living and breathing, and see how the money’s used — they’re building boats, which is seeing the life lessons that are being learned, the team building, the problem solving and the engineering — it’s really fun to be able to see it firsthand,” he said.

Discovery Boatbuilding hosts seventh and eighth graders from South Bristol School and Woolwich Central School for one day a week throughout the school year to learn traditional boatbuilding at the museum’s boat shop.

“This is one of the programs that we’re most proud of, with its connection to Maine’s maritime heritage and continuing it into the future. This has been going on for 400 years, and these kids are going to ensure that it continues to go on,” said Amy Lent, executive director of the museum. “So when you think about it, that is generations and generations of people in Maine doing what these kids are doing today — almost exactly as the way they’re doing it.”

Students are not only taught basic woodworking skills through smaller projects, but they also go through the process of building a 12-foot, flat-bottomed skiff as a team in the second semester of the program. 

“We try to make it about experiential learning — getting kids to think in three dimensions, which can be a lot different from a normal school experience,” said Kurt Spiridakis, the program educator and boat shop manager. 

At the end of the program, students will launch and row their boats in the Nequasset River to celebrate their hard work. 

Angus Brown, an eighth grader at Woolwich Central School, said he was grateful that students have an opportunity to participate in such a unique program. He added that boatbuilding or woodworking may be an area he hopes to pursue among other future plans — “it’s another option for when I make that decision,” he said. 

Eighth grader Tea Kepler said she also enjoys the program because she is able to apply what she learns in the classroom in a hands-on way. 

“Most of it is all about angles, math and fractions, which I like,” she said. “It’s always hands-on, which is fun and different from the classroom.”

Over the years, Discovery Boatbuilding has served more than 300 middle school students, and with continued support and donations from the community, the program will continue to serve these students for many more years to come.

“This donation affirms our belief in the benefits of a hands-on, comprehensive, traditional boatbuilding curriuculum located at Maine’s center for maritime history,” Spiridakis said.

dkim@timesrecord.com

DISCOVERY BOATBUILDING hosts seventh and eighth graders from South Bristol School and Woolwich Central School for one day a week throughout the school year to learn traditional boatbuilding at the museum’s boat shop.