The Spirit of South Carolina

October 20th, 2009: Sarah Piwinski, Executive Director of the South Carolina Maritime Heritage, visited our club this past Tuesday to fill us in on all the Spirit of South Carolina is doing for the young people in Charleston and the surrounding coastal areas. It also allowed all Rotarians to see our dollars at work as our club, through RCCF, has provided two grants to help The Spirit of South Carolina.

The ship is a pilot Schooner reminiscent of the Frances Elizabeth, a ship that was built here in Charleston in 1879. The new ship’s plans were adapted from plans for the Frances Elizabeth, which were found in the Smithsonian Institute.

The ship was officially launched in March of 2007 and has been busy ever since then. She is a 140 foot long ship that focuses on a cause near and dear to one of Rotary’s most valued causes, education. She not only teaches young people how to sail, kids that participate learn the value of team work and can incorporate things they are currently learning in school to the ship such as history and math. Most students that participate in the many programs she offers are 5th to 8th graders and come from all over the Lowcountry, typically through their schools.

The most popular program, the Day Sailors, caters to students in the Charleston, Georgetown and Buford areas. Students come on board with their class and spend the day on the ship learning and having fun. This summer, the Spirit of South Carolina hosted 40 students for a brand new six-week program that showed huge success. This program was funded by the South Carolina Education Department and allowed students to participate in 5 weeks of land programs that included reading, swimming, local college tours, math etc. After completing 5 weeks on land, 37 graduates of the program got to spend a week on the ship in New York’s Long Island Sound putting to use all that they had learned and getting to experience all sorts of new things including for most of the kids, a first plane ride to and from New York City. The goal of this program is to increase literacy, learning and staying in school to all of our young people here. The program, through the funding provided by the Education Department, was at no cost to any of the students. This program was a huge success and one the Maritime Center hopes to continue well into the future.

There are many other worthwhile programs that The Spirit of South Carolina does and many new ones that will come down the pipe in the future. It’s a unique way for us to take advantage of the ocean and teach kids of all ages not only sailing, but many other things that will hopefully enrich their life and focus on the importance of education.

There are many ways you can help: Funding a student or class which is what our two grants did. You can make donations, volunteer your time, contribute to the Donate a Book program they just recently started for students and many other ways. For more information, please visit www.scmaritime.org.

Contributed by Darby Siegel, Keyway Committee