South Everett program sending kids on boat adventure could soon end

EVERETT — With towering masts and impressive sails, the Adventuress resembles a pirate ship. However, it sails the sea not to pillage or plunder, but to teach.

Last month, the 133-foot schooner once again hosted “Everett at Sea,” a free program aimed to give kids and teens from the historically disadvantaged Casino Road neighborhood an opportunity to spend six days sailing through Puget Sound.

A crew of sailors and teachers supervised the kids while they lived, ate and slept on the Adventuress. They learned about maritime skills and the marine environment, made new friendships with their neighbors and went on excursions to the San Juan Islands and elsewhere.

“It is six days,” Adventuress captain Katelinn Shaw said. “That might sound like a short period of time to see the transformation of an individual, but it really happens.”

Shaw sailed on the Adventuress when she was young. She swears by the impact the experience can have.

Still, organizers are charting an uncertain path forward.

For several years, a state grant made it free for Casino Road families who couldn’t afford the expense. However, these grant awards are competitive and after this year, funding runs out.

Jesus Ramirez, 18, and his siblings Stephanie, 15, and Jasmin, 11, participated in the program this year. They had nothing but praise for the program and its crew, telling fond stories of orca sightings and brownie nights.

Their mother, Gabriela Gutierrez, agreed. She called it a valuable opportunity for her kids to make new friends and find self-confidence away from home.

If it weren’t free, Gutierrez said she couldn’t have sent Jesus, Stephanie, and Jasmin on the trip.

Without the grant, organizers said the program could be discontinued.

Sound Experience Executive Director Catherine Collins remains steadfast this is not the end.

“We’re gonna keep it going, but I don’t know how yet,” she said.

Built in 1913 for an Arctic expedition, the Adventuress first arrived in the Pacific Northwest in 1952. It changed owners several times until a sail training nonprofit called Youth Experience started using it for education. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989.

In the late 1980s, a nonprofit called Sound Experience took ownership with a similar mission: Educate young people.

“We believe that if kids have access to our waterways, they’re more likely to be stewards of the marine environment from the communities that they live in,” Collins said.

The program is a partnership between Sound Experience and advocacy group Connect Casino Road, which runs a local community center known as “The Village.”

Located in South Everett, the Casino Road neighborhood is home to about 13,000 people. A uniquely diverse community, almost 80% of students at the local elementary school identify as a race other than white, and almost half are English language learners, according to state data.

The neighborhood also has some of the highest poverty rates in Snohomish County, according to census data pulled by the center.

“It’s my experience that these families wouldn’t normally have either the opportunity, or the time, or the resources to be able to go out in the water or bring their kids out,” Collins said. “It’s a pretty special thing to do.”

The Adventuress hosts countless groups each year, but Collins said the Casino Road excursion is special.

“It’s my favorite program of the year,” she said. “It’s life changing, it’s perspective changing. That’s so important for these kids.”

For Shaw, the program is one way to make the world just a little bit better.

“Taking people out into the world, to be close to the ocean, those things make us happy. People are often filled with gratitude to just be where they are,” Shaw said. “Those kinds of feelings are really restorative. They also give people the strength to go back to whatever’s waiting in their lives.”

Connor Zamora: 425-339-3037; connor.zamora@heraldnet.com; X: @cgzamora02.