BUFFALO, N.Y. — Hoyt Lake’s newest sailors are local high schoolers, setting sail Tuesday aboard boats that they built themselves for the Buffalo Maritime Center.
“It’s a celebration of our student's hard work building boats all year,” Buffalo Maritime Center’s Education Coordinator, Chelsea Moore said.
Every single wooden, hand-carved boat on the water Tuesday is a year’s worth of class work by students at St. Mary’s School for the Deaf, Maritime Charter School, Riverside Academy, and Lafayette High School.
“What are the emotions like when you see these boats set sail with your students in them?” 7 News reporter Derek Heid asked.
“It’s wonderful, its magical,” Moore said.
Students made close to a dozen two-person canoes, but the largest boat on the water was a 5-man team that needed no words to work together.
“To be able to sign as you’re paddling is hard, you’re trying to do two things at once,” St. Mary’s Senior, Ramah Sifalden said.
Sifalden’s entire rowing crew goes to school at St. Mary’s School for the Deaf, where all teamwork is spoken through sign language.
“It’s about communicating beforehand, and as you’re paddling, hopefully everybody remembers what to do,” Sifalden said.
While some teams took an unplanned swim in the lake, the St. Mary’s team sailed without a hitch.
Inspiring happy team members and making one proud teacher out of Ron Czech
“[It is] the actual boats they made themselves, it’s a thrill to see that,” Czech said.
The St. Mary’s boat and all the canoes will stay at the Maritime Center, where they can be rented out by the public starting later this summer.
