By Ginger DeShaney

In a remarkable hands-on experience, a group of Condon Community Center kids built a 10-foot row boat from scratch, learning not only the art of crafting a boat but also gaining valuable life lessons along the way. 

These young builders – Jacob Davis, 11; Charlie Brea, 9; Naib Yohannes, 10; and Marcus Lacaussade, 11 – worked tirelessly over the course of several weeks to build the boat they named the “Billy Allen” in honor of an amazing Condon coach who was promoted to a different community center. They even brought it to a boat show!

Under the guidance of instructor Tim Smith from Community Boat Building, the kids learned how to safely handle tools, measure and cut materials, and assemble the boat piece by piece. 

“Their confidence and enthusiasm grew as the boat transformed from an abstract structure to taking on the shape of a skiff and finished into a usable and beautiful boat,” Tim said. “They formed a great working group of four distinct personalities and realized they could work together even if they were not best friends.”

Community Boat Building brings to life critical academic subjects and skills — math, science, social studies, spatial thinking, reading, and writing — with experiential learning opportunities for children in Boston Public Schools. 

Marcus said the journey began with a frame provided to the group, who then transformed it into a fully functional boat. 

“We started upside down,” Naib explained, “and after we put it all together, we flipped the whole boat over and then we saw how it actually looked.”

For the group, that was one of the coolest moments.

“We learned a lot of stuff,” said Jacob. “It was tough but fun.”

Jacob wanted to create something in honor of his dad, Michael Davis, a police officer who recently passed away. “My dad was a great police officer and a great dad to me.”

Naib wanted to be involved because he wants to be an engineer, “and if you can build boats, you can build anything.”

The process was not without its challenges. “We got splinters but we were fine,” Jacob said, “we still kept going.”

And a saw blade broke at one point, but the group was undeterred and proud of what they built.

“You know that feeling where you finish building something, and then you have that feeling of accomplishment,” said Marcus, who helped build a boat in this program last year.

Hopefully the builders can look at their hands as being capable of great things, Tim said, especially in this digital age when devices dominate. “Even at their young age they are now more skilled with tools than many adults.”

The students all agreed that by getting these skills, they won’t have to pay people to fix something in their future houses. They’ll be able to do it themselves.

The three-seat boat is back at Community Boat Building and will be painted red, white, and blue.

The boat will set sail this spring, and the builders already are looking forward to their maiden voyage. 

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