Mentoring program builds 'em, floats 'em
by Katharine HendrixSpecial to The Catalyst
MUSC’s contributions to the community don’t stop at the water’s edge.
University staff and volunteers have helped turn one of Charleston’s great nautical traditions into a youth mentoring program called the New Charleston Mosquito Fleet.
More than a hundred years ago, African American fishermen set out on the harbor in small wooden boats that could be rowed upwind and sailed back downwind. These legendary seamen would venture as far as 20 miles offshore and earned the name “mosquito fleet” because they returned home at twilight along with swarms of Lowcountry insects.
Rob
Dunlap directs members of the boatbuilding team.
The tradition was revived in 1995 by Rob Dunlap, a researcher at Fort Johnson Marine Resource Lab, and Leslie Kendall, a research facilities administrator at MUSC. They have built the program as a hands-on mentoring program for developing character and leadership skills in local young people.
Young people reach these lofty goals by working as a team to build, maintain, and row boats—which they call “gigs.” The gigs are powered by long sweep oars and modeled on the same design as the traditional fleet’s but made with modern materials so they are lighter and easier to handle.
MUSC
student Amanda Graham, Erik Brown, left, and Curtis Hamilton.
Although it’s an all volunteer staff, Dunlap and Kendall are at the core of the mosquito fleet’s activities, organizing everything from rowing trips to boat building and maintenance. The mosquito fleet has built three small skiffs and two 34-foot, fixed-seat gigs which they row on the Ashley River from the City Marina. Kendall mentors one of the mosquito fleet’s long-time participants, Erik Brown, who currently works with the MUSC grounds crew. Strangely, a neighbor’s dog is responsible for getting Brown involved.
“I always used to go over there with my friends to play with her dog and one day she said she had a job for us,” Brown said. “The job turned out to be to join this program, so we did.”
At the time Brown was 14 years old and he was one of the first kids to join the New Charleston Mosquito Fleet. Now, at age 21, Brown is a seasoned rower and a role model for the younger kids in the program.
“When it started we had a meeting and the first thing they did was ask us what we wanted to get out of the program. We wanted to have fun,” Brown said. “You know, to build it around getting the kids involved but to have fun. It started as a six-month program and 18 months later we were still building boats. That’s my favorite thing—building boats and going to eat afterwards.”
Thirteen-year-old Curtis Hamilton has been with the program for three years and looks to Brown as a role model. His mother got him involved after she heard about the mosquito fleet at the Charleston Housing Authority where she works. She never dreamed that joining the program would take her son on his first plane ride and a trip to New York to participate in the American Star Invitational rowing competition. The trip happened the way many things do when enthusiastic people are involved. It started with a conversation over dinner after rowing one Thursday night last December.
Leslie
Kendall works on a gunwhale at the Annual Boatshow.
“I was talking with Erik and Curtis about how great it would be to go,” Dunlap said, “and Leslie started talking about how cheap tickets were then. I couldn’t get it out of my mind.”
By Friday Kendall and Dunlap had decided to use their own money up front and look for sponsors later. Saturday afternoon Brown, Hamilton, and Dunlap were on a plane headed to the Big Apple, a first for both young rowers.
A boat was donated by the New York rowing program called, Floating the Apple, and they stayed with Dunlap’s brother in Manhattan. Amanda Graham, a second-year student in MUSC’s College of Graduate Studies, volunteers and rows with the mosquito fleet on their early morning foray out on the Ashley River. “It’s a great way to start the day. I grew up in a land-locked state—so for me it’s perfect. And, it gives children the opportunity to learn good seamanship, boat building, leadership skills and responsibility.”
Many other MUSC students and staff participate like Melissa Mathews from the Office of Research and Development and Jennifer Davis a lab technician for Frank Spinale, M.D.
“We’re always looking for enthusiastic, fun people to come out and row, and of course, money is always a challenge,” Kendall said. The New Charleston Mosquito Fleet is supported by MUSC, the City Marina, Sea Island Boatworks, Gaulart and Malliclet (Fast & French), J.M.O. Woodworks, J.H.B. Associates, and private donations. Anyone is welcome to row on the regular outings which leave pier E at the City Marina at 5:30 p.m. on Monday and Wednesday afternoons or gather at the City Marina Amoco station on Lockwood Boulevard at 6 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
For more information, to make a donation, or to join the program, call
762-9247.