On a delightfully sunny Saturday morning in July, by coincidence the last of this year’s St. George Days celebrations, my wife and I killed time on the town float in Tenants Harbor, waiting for space on the dock to open up so my brother and his wife could pick us up with their boat for a cruise to nowhere in particular.
Soon after we arrived, a couple with two kids clamored down the ramp and boarded a center console tied up nearby. Like us, they weren’t going anywhere soon either, because although the annual parade had ended a while ago, the town was still bustling and the crew of the boat that had rafted up alongside of them was nowhere to be seen.
As the couple’s kids squirmed around on the transom seat eating sandwiches and dad played with switches and instruments, their mother struck up a conversation that quickly turned to the new makers school that was soon to open up alongside the nearby elementary school.
It was the talk of the town, we were told, and this family couldn’t have been more excited about it.
Indeed, The Grace Innovation Center, which held its grand opening in August to great fanfare—including a concert by the Adam Ezra Group (the band leader and his family live in Port Clyde)—was years in the making, and a true community effort, according to its executive director, Mike Felton.
Since 1936, St. George youngsters had benefited from the Lillius Gilchrest Grace Institute, which provided instruction in home economics and manual arts. But the non-profit had closed in 2011 and it was sorely missed. In 2016, a year or so after the local elementary school left a larger school district to make a go of it on its own, grants were obtained to open a makerspace, which began with a laser cutter and printer.
Parents, however, wanted more, and three years ago plans were set in motion to construct a building for a new Grace Center. Felton said what began as a $700,000 project ended with a budget of more than $3 million and resulted in a facility that includes workspaces packed with tools and technology for grades K-though-12 “hands-on, minds-on learning,” adult continuing education, and communitywide telemedicine programs. Planning included teachers, the local school board, parents, businesses, and entities such as the Mid-Coast School of Technology in nearby Rockland.
“All of this sort of coalesced into this vision for a building that would provide traditional trades and tools, you know, the boatbuilding, woodworking, metal working, along with newer technologies and skills like laser cutting, 3D printing, and routers, Felton said.
The idea, he continued, was to bring a hands-on aspect to educating all students, starting as early as kindergarten.
So, for instance, kindergarteners and first graders enjoy a “snowman” project, where they measure themselves using tape measures, cut two-by-fours to their heights with saws, and then paste noses on them that were created using a laser cutter. Older students design and make model boats. Or, in the welding shop, they might get a taste for metal fabrication.
“Kids come in and the see that welding room and their eyes really light up,” Felton said. The goal, he added, is “We want to have a highly skilled and healthy, innovative workforce that will support our year-round community so our town of St. George will be here in perpetuity.”
Toward that end, some 40 local businesses have stepped up to support the various Grace Center programs, introducing kids to various career options available close to home.
“I honestly don’t care if our kids, right out school, if they go to Mid-Coast School of Technology and they get the welding certification and they go to work at Steel-Pro,” Felton said. “Or if they get their certification and they go start their own business, or if they go to MIT and get their Ph.D as an engineer—or they do all three, right? We’re breaking down all those silos and we look at every path with dignity and respect. We know how much tradespeople can make. They can make really good livings and those are jobs that are desperately needed in our community.”
Like any startup, Felton admits that all involved with Grace Center are learning as they go along. He says he’s not aware of another school like it anywhere. Currently they also are working on developing programs for the town’s high schoolers and continuing ed programs for older residents. He predicts most will be up and running by this spring.
So far, the lesson he’s learned is this: “You can’t underestimate what these kids can do. You can’t hold them back when they’re ready to shine.”
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