Clearwater Continues to Empower Local Youth

BEACON – Last week Clearwater sailed with over a dozen young men from various local communities on the historic sloop for a transformative three-day, intensive sail training and leadership experience. This week, the crew will be joined by a group of young women from the Hudson Valley for their own voyage at the helm of the tall ship.

The young women are taught how to sail and navigate the 106’ sloop Clearwater as well as the history of the Hudson River, ecology, lessons in water quality, overcoming challenges, and living in a small community. Serving as guest captain for this year’s program is Captain Samantha Heyman-Hicks, who was onboard for the first Young Women at the Helm program in 2001. Captain Hicks, who worked aboard the sloop Clearwater in various roles from 1996 to 2005 and again from 2008 to 2010 brings a unique skill set to the program.

The young women spend three days sailing aboard Clearwater, each day gaining new skills and earning increased responsibility for sailing the vessel. Nights are spent camping around a bonfire and meeting with empowering role models and community members from various professions who encourage the participants to consider career and life choices that may seem out of reach, and the power of perseverance when faced with obstacles. The program culminates with the young women presenting what they’ve learned to their peers, families, and Clearwater’s staff and crew.

“You see these young women come onboard unsure of what the experience will be like, but as the days go on you see them change”, said Captain Hicks. “They take immense pride in the skills they learn onboard. They learn to break gender stereotypes, because they don’t exist on the sloop. It’s important for young people to see themselves reflected in their leaders, being a female captain shouldn’t be a notable thing, but it is. Some of these young women comment that they didn’t even know women could be captains. They see that women are capable of being in these leadership positions and that men are able to be in these hierarchies beneath them.”

Clearwater piloted the “Young Women at the Helm” program fifteen years ago with the intention to gather a group of young women from under-served Hudson Valley communities and give them an incredible, life changing experience. “You often see kids who leave the ship after a three hour sail very excited about what they just experienced. We get to give them a deeper learning experience through these programs”, said Captain Hicks of how the program came to be.

The successful program has resulted in many of the participants becoming youth leaders; empowering them to return to their communities with a new appreciation for the Valley, to take social action on issues that affect them, and to be lifelong stewards for the Hudson River. Some even come back to the sloop as crew members or volunteers.

The young women will be sailing from August 3rd through 5th throughout the mid-Hudson Valley.

The sloop Clearwater serves the Hudson River from April to October with unique education programs where the focus is experiential. Students come aboard and learn about Hudson River ecology, history and navigation.