Port Townsend maritime center director steers course for education
Sep 18, 2007
Presented at the recent Wooden Boat Festival, Cummings' talk highlighted the course the center is heading - one that started before he took the helm in January.
"I felt like this ship already left the dock and I had to make a running leap to get aboard," Cummings said.
Close to Dana Cummings should be familiar with ships - a replica of the 135-foot, square-rigged brig Pilgrim served as his base of operations for many years.
That was at the Ocean Institute at Dana Point Harbor, Calif., where Cummings, a biology teacher, signed on to do marine research and education.
He stayed for 20 years, taking the institute from a start-up organization to one of the leaders in marine and maritime education - annually, 60,000 teachers and students use its research vessel, The Sea Explorer, the topsail schooner, Spirit of Dana Point and Pilgrim.
When he first arrived, the institute between Los Angeles and San Diego consisted of one 4,000-square-foot building, which was too small for its purpose, Cummings said.
So he had an idea - to bring a replica of Pilgrim to the harbor named after Richard Henry Dana to use as a floating platform for educational programs.
Arrival of Pilgrim "I remember watching her sail into the harbor," Cummings said.
The ship, built of stout oak, had to be moved two times to find a moorage strong enough to hold her, Cummings said - the force of the tide pressing against the ship literally popped the nails out of the pier.
But using Pilgrim to bring maritime heritage alive took hold from the start, he said.
It was that experience that brought Cummings north to the Northwest Maritime Center.
Attracting students "With Stan as executive director, the focus of the maritime center has moved from a facility to services for the community, especially the youth," said Carla Mains, a maritime center board member.
Specifically, Cummings' mission is to draw students from local and regional schools to the Northwest Maritime Center for programs in leadership training, sailing and outdoor education.
This spring, the entire seventh grade at Port Townsend's Blue Heron Middle School participated in a three-week pilot program that integrated classroom instruction on navigation, maritime history and science with on-the-water experience sailing longboats in Port Townsend Bay.
Organizers are hoping to offer the program, which helps students connect learning to real life, to other middle-school students in Jefferson and Clallam counties.
Longboat program "The longboat program has tremendous implications in light of the direction education is going," Cummings said.
Being on the water also teaches interpersonal dynamics, he said, noting that students who don't stand out in the classroom sometimes emerge as leaders aboard the boats.
And with maritime trades looking for skilled workers, it introduces students to career opportunities in their community.
"They're at an age where they are looking outside themselves," he said.
"If kids don't see where they belong, they don't see where their future is."
It also introduces students to a possible recreational activity and broadens their awareness of history.
Unlike Pilgrim, which is associated with one era of maritime history, the longboats, replicas of the ones Capt. George Vancouver's crew used to explore Puget Sound, are similar to the longboats used by Columbus when he arrived in the New World.
"We're hoping to get a third boat so that we can handle a whole class at once," he said.
Flagship building The Northwest Maritime Center's flagship building is also a vision waiting to happen, Cummings said.
So far, almost $10 million of the $12.5 million goal has been raised or is in the pipeline, including $2.25 million from Washington state and $450,000 awaiting approval in the federal budget.
The naming rights are still on the table for the donor - an individual, company or group of companies - who helps close the gap by contributing $2 million.
The property, a former fuel dock adjacent to Hudson Point Marina, has already been purchased and cleaned up, and a dock built.
Once funding is in place, the building will take 18 months to complete, Cummings said.
"Other than getting the permits, which might expire, we're ready to go to bid," he said.
In addition to his work at the Ocean Institute, Cummings worked for the Yosemite National Institutes and founded the Headlands Campus in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area near San Francisco.
Like the original Pilgrim, Cummings' progress brought him to the West Coast.
Before moving to Port Townsend, Cummings was head of Tacoma's Annie Wright School. He also played a role in bringing the tall ships to Tacoma, worked for the Port Townsend Marine Science Center advisory board and led an advocacy group that monitored the cleanup of Commencement Bay.
________ Writer/photographer Jennifer Jackson can be reached at jjackson@olypen.com.
Wooden boat or maritime center? Founded in 1977, the Wooden Boat Foundation merged with the Northwest Maritime Center in 2005.
One goal of the Northwest Maritime Center is to provide a permanent home for the Wooden Boat Foundation, which focuses on preserving the heritage of traditional wooden craft.
Through the popular Wooden Boat Festival and sales at its chandlery, the Wooden Boat Foundation raises money to support the educational mission of the Northwest Maritime Center.
When the Northwest Maritime Center facility is built, it will provide a focal point for visitors and residents to appreciate Port Townsend's historic seaport and the entire scope of its maritime heritage, including the working waterfront and its authentic trades.
