Urban Boatbuilders was recently featured on Bending Branches ' official blog! We discuss with them the significance of boats in our work, our apprenticeship and partnership programs, the variety of canoes we handmake, and more!
From Bending Branches:
Bending Branches is a 40-year testament to wood, willpower, and Wisconsin. As the world's largest manufacturer of quality canoe and kayak paddles, we remain a privately held company in Northwestern Wisconsin, staffed by paddling enthusiasts. This translates into countless hours spent designing, prototyping, testing, and perfecting each of our paddles. And when that's done, we go back and look at ways to build them even better. Lighter, stiffer, smarter, more durable, and more beautiful. Our customers have found our paddles to be their long-term companions on all adventures.
Click here to learn more about Bending Branches and to shop their paddles.
Thank you to Kate Wright from Bending Branches and Sharon Brodin from Brodin Press for putting this feature together!
Read the story below.
Apr 18, 2024
Urban Boatbuilders and Their Work with Young People
5-minute read
Urban Boatbuilders is a Saint Paul, Minnesota-based 501c3 non-profit organization that “empowers youth to succeed in work and life through experiential learning.” This includes building and using canoes, kayaks, paddles and longboards.
A crew of excited paddlers on a local lake in boats they built themselves
The second-oldest boatbuilding non-profit of its kind in the US, Urban Boatbuilders was formed in 1995 when two different sets of people had the same idea. They decided to work together to see their mutual dreams come to fruition.
We sat down with Gretchen Wilbrandt, Director of Development and Community Engagement, and Gloria Lee, Communications Associate, to find out more about the young people they serve, their mission and their processes.
Here’s our conversation with Gretchen and Gloria of Urban Boatbuilders:
BENDING BRANCHES: Why boats?
URBAN BOATBUILDERS: Boat building is a detailed and complex process that helps build several different skills. It’s very technical but also incorporates social and emotional learning components. Young people are impacted at several levels, including getting out into the environment and experiencing the boat they just built.
In our apprenticeship program we offer wilderness trips once our young people have finished building their boats. We offer a 3-5 day trip on the St Croix River—this year it’s Wild River State Park [the St Croix forms part of the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin]. And we do an annual 5-day trip in the Boundary Waters.
In our partnership programs, young people have an opportunity to launch their newly made watercraft on a local lake (and yes, we've even launched in a school swimming pool)—sometimes including as many as 300 students out on the water in a day!
For many of our participants, it’s their first opportunity to be able to take a trip like this, engage in nature, or even go outside of the Twin Cities. For some, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—a wonderful point in their life to be able to experience the world around them. And then to continue to steward and foster an appreciation for the environment...
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