Scott Swanson
Fir Lawn Lutheran Church’s sailboat-building project is gearing up for its second year and Pastor Joe Medley says help is needed.
Specifically, some “boat elves.”
Medley has had a hankering for years to start a sailing program for young people, who would build their own 8-foot-long El Toro-class sailing dinghies, with 13-foot masts, and then learn to sail them on Foster Lake.
A former building contractor, Medley, 66, also has some personal experience on the water, having been a yacht club member when he lived in Klamath Falls.
This year’s boat-building program, dubbed the “Noah Project” after the biblical boat builder, will begin in June. Volunteers will help teen participants build their crafts. The plan is to then have a regatta at Foster Lake, in which members of the Eugene Yacht Club will teach the kids how to sail their boats.
The program kicked off last year, with five teen boys, who built boats during the summer, with volunteer help from members of the Fir Lawn congregation – both men and women.
It was a learning experience for everybody, he said.
“Last year we told the kids they were guinea pigs,” Medley said. “They all got boats built, but they never got them all on the water. We didn’t have sails until September and it was too late then.”
Medley said they’ve solved that problem.
“We’re doing this in June this year,” he said. “We’re making the sails ourselves.”
He ordered a kit from a company that sells sails and sailmaking supplies, and made a Masonite template.
“I traced them all out,” he said. “You have to use a hot knife to cut the polyester-type material. We have a group of women putting them together. It takes about three hours. It’s not too bad.”
They hope to include eight teens in this year’s program, eighth- through 10th-grade girls as well as boys. The plan is to have them selected and ready to go by the end of the school year. The plan is to start on June 18.
The goal, he said, is to give at-risk young people a chance to do something well outside their experience and to build self-confidence.
Medley said he’s recently become increasingly concerned about bullying, which has motivated him in his efforts to get the boatbuilding project up and running.
Thinking of his own past, he said, it’s hard to bully a kid who’s achieved more than others realize.
“We don’t have kids in this church. We’re not out to make kids into Lutherans. We want kids to know what Jesus Christ has done for all of us. We want them to know just how incredibly made, how capable they are. And it’s fun. To see somebody do something they couldn’t even imagine they could do before, that’s amazing.”
Church member Patti Holt said she saw big things happen in last year’s group of teen participants when she volunteered with the boat project.
“The first day they arrived, they were all hands-in-pockets, they weren’t talking to each other. By the time they were finished, they were friends. They were helping each other. It wasn’t just about them and their boat. It was the group and they had plans for the rest of the summer.”
She said she’s heard reports since that those relationships have continued through the school year, along with other positives.
“We had a report from one of the teachers in the school on a couple of the kids, that he could not believe the difference in the child.”
Medley said achievement is a big deal for at-risk kids.
“I remember the first time in my life when I climbed a mountain. I was 18. Seeing everything around was really neat, but a couple of weeks before that I couldn’t even have imagine doing something like that. Those are life-changing moments.”
Also, Medley said, he sees local natural resources with which some local young people have little connection.
“We have a lake. We’re timber country. All these things that make this something we should do.”
The boats are built out of off-the-shelf hardware and conventional lumber, not marine construction materials.
“We keep saying our big thing is we’re not building these boats to last a lifetime. It’s the experience of building a boat,” Medley said. “We build these boats, including the sail, for right around $400. I paid almost $800 for just the hull when I built one myself.”
The El Toro was designed in 1940 to teach people how to sail in San Francisco Bay, he said. It differs from some similar small sailing craft in that it has a deck and splash guard to protect against choppy water.
“They’re seaworthy little craft ” Medley said. “They’ll last as long as you take care of them.”
What’s needed now is help. Six volunteers helped last year. He said they could use twice that many this year. An all-day commitment isn’t necessary, though the plan is to have have the teens work all day for 10½ days, in morning and afternoon sessions, on the boats.
“We would really love to have twice that many volunteers this year,” he said. “We always have room.”
Volunteer adults and some alumni from last year’s program will supervise and teach this year’s teens on use of power tools and woodworking skills.
Also, if a participant falls behind, “boat elves” will do a little extra work on the sly to make sure their charges are on schedule.
“We’ve got this down to a science,” Medley said.
He and Holt said willing hearts are just as welcome as craftsmanship experience.
“I hadn’t had any experience in this,” Holt said. “It was just another passion that comes around and you jump on to support it. It’s been Joe’s passion for the 10 years that I’ve been around.
“I just think it’s worthwhile. If you can help a kid find a little more self-confidence and worth in themselves, and learn some commitment along the way, how can you go wrong?”