Spirit of America; Americas Premier Youth Boating Education Program ‘Teaching The Way Our Children Learn’

Our Year of Learning, Adapting, Sharing and Making Lemonade

Published: Saturday, December 5, 2020

2020 has been a year filled with the privilege of continuing to provide our youth education programs across the country. Never could we have imagined, after 26 years on the water, how our program would be required to change in its delivery but, more importantly, we never imagined how very quickly our curriculum would be needed to provide traditional credit courses for our students across the country. We knew we had to come to the plate as fast as possible. It has also been a year filled with daily changes, sometimes hourly, and expecting the unexpected. Our amazing staff and Coordinators were up to the task! Not too far from our daily jobs and the constantly changing conditions of providing educational curriculum in a water-based environment, we have taken away many lessons over the past ten months and learned a great deal during this unprecedented year. Thanks to our dedicated and passionate partners and instructors, Spirit programs were able to function in some locations, based on the protocols of their community and state, while offering opportunity for teachers to provide educational resources for their classrooms.

We know that being near the water can calm us and connect children their families and communities and that being near the water can reduce stress, amplify creativity and increase innovation and insight. With that in mind, we provide introduction to water-based recreational activities in a way for our students to dare to dream, learn, react and develop lifelong learning skills in a safe and educational environment.

Without the ability to provide our program in several of our locations due to complete shut downs, we quickly adjusted our sails to make our school educators aware of the new safety protocols developed for each program in conjunction with the CDC, local, state and federal requirements. These protocols not only included sanitizing equipment appropriately but developing a manner in which to socially distance our students on our equipment. Thankfully, being in the out of doors helped more than any other aspect of the program.

For those unfamiliar with the foundation, Spirit of America was established in 1995 as a not-for-profit public service organization to serve our nation’s youth with Americas Premier Youth Boating Education Programs. We offer a unique, safe and comprehensive water-based educational and recreational program, instilling confidence and fostering the Spirit of teamwork in our nations youth. Our underlying goals also include developing self-esteem while nurturing responsible behavior and positive, lifelong ambitions.

This year we saw an immediate need for educators to create environments for their students to participate in their traditional classroom work in a very untraditional surrounding.

The urgency to develop this new way to teach was overwhelming for our nations teachers. We, along with many of our partners were able to immediately provide the proven ‘curriculum’ in our programs. Developed in 1996, and enhanced over the past 25 years, our foundation was able to provide the national education standards necessary in our schools, already included in all of our curriculum in a setting the country was desperately looking for, having been mandated by developing protocols for safe spaces for our children, their families and educators. Our first classrooms with ‘credit’ were held in Cleveland for the Davis A & M and Phastar high schools students and we continued to provide programs in our Miami location.

Many studies show that learning in the out of doors delivers countless benefits including reduction of stress, enhancing moods, boosting concentration and increasing a child’s awareness and enthusiasm for learning in their traditional school work. High-quality educational program experiences in out of doors ‘classrooms’ are proven to develop inquisitive thinking, better problem-solving and adaptable ability and practical approaches to real situations. These same educational experiences encourage well rounded development of children and flexibility, confidence and strength in occasionally unpredicted conditions. Placing our young people and their instructors, in a safe natural setting appears to have an have a fundamental effect on our emotional and intellectual functions.

Our unique curriculum touches upon all aspects of recreating on the water; state education courses, drowning prevention, sail, canoe, kayak, stand up paddleboard, powered watercraft and safety equipment – at little to no cost to any student. Our curriculum will continue to incorporate national education, physical education, and next generation science standards, vocational opportunity, and unlimited components of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM).

We empower our youth and their communities by providing a sustainable resource of opportunity with a curriculum balancing the resources of the national on-water, skills-based and knowledge-based standards of education in a diverse and non-traditional classroom, inspiring a lifelong stewardship of our natural resources. We continue to build a national constituency of individuals and organizations who, with the very best instructors in our country, provide our program curriculum in a way for our students to develop lifelong learning and social skills. Our instructors lead with passion, guiding our students and ensuring a future generation of SAFE – SMART boaters and lifelong recreational enthusiasts which ensures the continued growth of a viable marine industry. ‘Future Boaters … Future Business’

We are looking forward to training this winter, being together with our partners again and putting into place all that we have learned this past year. We encourage readers to get on board with your local youth education programs and help us to celebrate all that we can be, all that we now know we can learn to be.

Happy New Year, enjoy some Lemonade on us!