The warm, breezy weather was perfect for the high school kids who went to Buckmaster Pond yesterday for the maiden voyage of their latest handiwork - a canvas and wood canoe.
The 15 students of Westwood High's flex program carried the sleek, blue craft to the water and took turns climbing aboard are the program's intangible, yet primary achievements.
"Pretty nice canoe, huh?" said Paul Houston, who runs the program, "Turned out well."
The canoe isn't the only thing about the program that turned out well, according to Janet Landry, mom of flex program student Ryan Landry.
"This has been such a good thing for these kids," she said.
Right now, there are about 20 kids in the flex program, which helps students facing social and behavioral challenges, Houston said. Some of the students in the program have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Others have what the education community calls individual education plans, or IEPs, which are personalized curriculums to help them learn.
Many of them are unmotivated, he said. The flex program teaches them life skills such as planning and organization through activities like rock climbing and team projects, said Houston.
One of those projects is building an 1800s-era wood and canvas canoe, which Houston did with a group of flex program kids last year. Students helped with the carpentry, bending the wood into the proper shapes, sanding, painting and applying polyurethane to the finished product. They started in September, and at 1 p.m. yesterday, they took turns paddling it around the pond.
"(The project) definitely helped me stay focused, because I had something to look forward to," Ryan Landry said. He said he spent an hour, sometimes an hour and a half, two or three times a week after school and on Saturdays to help build the canoe.
His mom knows Ryan got more out of the project than just good class attendance. Building the canoe took an understanding of science and math, and required students to learn firsthand about how to work with wood; sanding, painting and finishing their project.
Also, Houston, a former U.S. Marine, serves as the students' mentor as well as their teacher, encouraging them to work hard and apply themselves.
"He's a great role model for them," Mrs. Landry said.
This year the program was funded by a $5,806 grant from the Westwood Educational Foundation and a $1,000 grant from the Westwood Parent-Teacher Organization.
"I'm having a very good time," said Hannah Cohn as she snapped photos of the outing for her Facebook account. She said the program helped her stay on top of her class work. Because members of the program have to get their teachers to sign off on progress in other subjects, they're inspired to stay on top of their academics.
Without the program, "I wouldn't be very motivated," Cohn said.
