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Robert Peck
eClub One Director

About a year ago I learned about Sound Opportunities, a program for young people at risk in the Olympia, WA area.  It combines a wooden boat building shop with a rowing and sailing excursion to the San Juan Islands—about 150 miles to the north.  Everything about this program appealed to me because I have been into wooden boats nearly all my life and also have had a career in education, where the shaping of young lives is the objective. 

Patrick Barmes heads the program. He perfectly combines skills as a craftsman and a professional counselor.  I work in the boat shop on weekends with young folks—boys and girls—along side some other senior mentors while Patrick does it all---boat building, counseling, mentoring and skippering.  Here is his story.

eClub One: Patrick, what is the exact name of your organization and how did it get started? What was its purpose?

Patrick: Sound Opportunities has been in existence for 13 years.  It began out of the need to connect kids with opportunities where they could be successful.  The founder Larry Beye was working as the Children’s Program Manager for Community Mental Health.

He had frequent encounters with local school district representatives and they pointed out that they had many students who were failing due to significant behavior problems.

He had a great idea…  Connect the kids with local boat builders and have them work on building boats.  Creating the opportunity for the kids to work on tasks that would assist them to build relationships as they participated in a shared-experience.

Our first project was the building of a 16ft. Swampscott Dory.  By the close of the first year of operation we had completed “Sweetness” and had accomplished getting the youth buy-in.  The first participants in the program joined us in presenting their boat at several local wooden-boat festivals.  The kids beamed with pride in their accomplishment of having been active in every segment of the process of building a traditional wooden boat.

That first success was the stepping off point for the development of

Sound Opportunities. 

eClub One: Who does the program serve?  Where do these young people come from and what typically are their problems?

Patrick: Sound Opportunities serves youth from 13 to 18 years of age.  In addition we provide an opportunity for adult community members to join in as mentors.

The kids come from many sources.  Referrals come from the juvenile court system (Sound Opportunities is a community service work site), local school district counselors, local mental health counselors, Case Management Services, and the foster placement system.

We have worked with children with significant emotional behavioral disabilities (ADD, ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder), in addition we work with youth who are struggling to make connections with their community.  Many have had contact with Law Enforcement and the Juvenile Court System.  Many are failing in school and have dropped out or are contemplating dropping out. Many have used or are actively using street drugs.   Many have come from the foster placement system and have had multiple placement failures. Many are in crisis in their relationship with their families.

Sound Opportunities provides a stress free site where they can re-connect with adults who’s only agenda is to work on boats and have a good tome doing so.   

eClub One: Describe your work with these young people in your boat shop.

Patrick: I have made a commitment to opening the door on Sunday.  I try to encourage kids to join in and help us out.  I pitch in and help buy the pizza and spend as much time as I can getting to know them.  I try to listen to them and not to judge their mistakes.  I also try to applaud their successes.  I try to advocate for them if I am given the opportunity to do so.

I try to bring in enthusiasm for the tasks at hand and try my best to keep everyone busy.  I don’t get much boat-building done myself as I spend most of my time teaching or fetching tools for the program participants.

I keep the flame alive year round and make a commitment to the Boat Shop Program and the Summer Expedition.  I volunteer most of the year simply because there isn’t enough money to pay out a salary.     

eClub One: Describe a typical Expedition for us.

Patrick: To answer this question I am including a correspondence I had with one of our supporters.

Donna,

I appreciate your interest in this year’s expedition.  It is always difficult to put in writing the lessons gained, and the wonder of such an experience.  I am blessed with being given the opportunity to conduct the expedition and am doubly blessed with the opportunity to work with such a wonderful group of staff and students.

This year we had 20 student participants, 16 boys and 4 girls. We had student referrals form local foster placement agencies, School counselors, local therapists, juvenile probation officers and mental health case managers. 

The student’s ages for the first four weeks of the expedition ranged from 12 to 21 years. Their backgrounds were varied; some came from single parent households, others from two parent families, yet others were from the foster placement system.  Some have doing well in school and others have been struggling, some have had contact with law enforcement while others have managed to stay clear of the law. Some have participated on other Sound Opportunities programming while many were having their first experience with Sound Opp’s. 

I am pleased to report that all who joined the expedition completed their segment.  There were no accidents or injuries, and no one left the trip.

We were rained on more during this year’s expedition than on any other trip that we have conducted.  Yet the participants rose to the occasion every time.  Even though we rowed (and we rowed for 70% of the time) in the rain, the kids kept their spirits and were always excited to get to camp. (sometimes after 7pm)

• Getting to camp means that you have completed the day’s distance, often between 10 and 20 miles, frequently under oar (rowing). 

• Next is the complete unloading of the boats, (all food and gear comes off). Wading in cold water up to your knees, often to your waist.

• Then comes the setting up of the tarps, cooking of the dinner, gathering of the firewood and getting the campfire going.

• Then, is the evening group meeting where we talk about the day’s high’s and low’s and lessons of the day.

• Then we get down to eating marshmallows and graham crackers.

• Bedtime is up to the kids, yet often on rainy nights they are in bed as soon as the evening meeting is over (around 10:30).

Sleeping under tarps is a real experience.  With no mosquito netting, the bugs, mice and slugs have access.  The students are frequently mosquito bitten and learn about bug spray early on.

In the morning (wake up is between 7 and 8am) the first one up gets the stoves set up and hot water going.   Once everyone is up and their personal gear packed, we eat breakfast.  After breakfast we clean our dishes down-on-the-beach with sand and salt water.  Then comes the breaking down of camp.  Once everything is packed up we hold the morning group.

Physical and emotional condition, goal for the day.  Selection of the crew’s for the day, and the laying out of the course.

Then comes the loading of the boats.    Back and forth from the pile of gear on the beach to the boats (once again we wade into the water up to our knees, or waist) until all of the gear is loaded.  Then we shove off and start the day.  If it is windy we sail, if not we row, which is most often the case. 

We row or sail throughout the day, stopping on the beach to eat lunch or for a potty break only when necessary.  This then is the daily ritual throughout the expedition, with the exception of the earned day off. 

The earned day off is when we consistently make the day’s distance or we make better than expected progress (perhaps we had a good day of sailing and covered more than one day’s distance). 

Rain or shine we toiled, strengthening our  bodies and getting blisters.  Singing our harts out, telling stories or just enjoying the scenery.

Traveling over 100 miles from Olympia to Seattle, and then on to Anacortes is a lot of water to cover.  Every day we saw Kingfishers, Great Blue Herons, Eagles, Crows, and shore birds too many to list.   We watched Mt. Rainer fade into the distance and Mt. Baker rise into view.  We had a commanding view of the Olympic Mountains daily.   We had magnificent sunsets and sunrises, and the most amazing star filled sky over our heads each night.

The two weeks and nearly 100 miles in the San Juan Islands were spectacular.  We were blessed with dolphin sightings almost every day and one day we sighted Orca Whales off the south end of Lopez Island.

Everyone that we came in contact with, be it a boater or a beach walker treated us just great, most gasping with excitement, at our pluck, for having set out on such a wonderful adventure.  Many wising that they could join us. 

Stops included:  Long Branch, Vashon Isl., Blake Isl., Lake Union, Meddowdale, Camano Isl., Hope Isl., Deception Pass, Borrows Isl., Doe Isl., Susha Isl., Jones Isl., James Isl., Lopez Isl., Cypress Isl., Strawberry Isl., Orcas Isl. (I may have left a few stops out).

eClub One: What are some of the most notable results that you attribute to experience in the program?  

Patrick: Kids experience hardship every day they are participating on the expedition. For those who are participating for the first time the hardship is often greater than anything that they have ever experienced before.  They learn through shared experience that they came be successful if they put their minds to it.  They learn that when you are working as part of a team, almost anything is possible. 

Kids learn that those around you can and will support you.  That you can trust your thought and feelings to others and they will show you respect.  They also experience the joy of being out in the wilderness seeing and experiencing the sights and sounds of nature.

They learn that they can become a working member of a working micro community.

eClub One: Thank you, Patrick, for sharing “Sound Opportunities” with us. We are proud to be a very small part of the effort and wish you well in all your endeavors.

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