“All Hands on Deck”

The project with Trash to Treasure (T2T) was named “All Hands on Deck.” We were thrilled to be working with such a large object, a 15 foot Cuban refugee boat. The boat was rendered unseaworthy by knocking out large holes toward the bow of the boat, and some areas on each side were structurally compromised.
Casey Eckels lives in Pompano Beach and suggested we make a presentation to the Art Advisory Board in Pompano Beach, offering them the opportunity to receive our public art project for placement in one of their parks on the intracoastal waterway. We were enthusiastic, hopeful. I created a mock up of the design for this meeting. The idea was well received. We then had to just wait for a reply, and we knew that would take a few months.
I took stock of the volume of plastic items I had and guesstimated the quantity for each major color group. White was the most prevalent color. Red was a good second, then blue, orange, green, yellow and lesser amounts of black and purple.
The plastic was all sorted by color and placed into large plastic bins so the volunteers could easily select and place as they were working.
The design on the port side was like a long wave; the center strip ended up being We decided to believe and highlight the fact that the refugees successfully made it here to the U.S.A. and that it was a well orchestrated effort of a number of people. Within the design for the boat I included a circle toward the bow that had two hands, one reaching up and the other reaching down. The bow’s vertical strip (at the front of the boat) was covered with purple plastic items of all sorts. It seemed we had just enough.
The starboard side was more of a swirly design, larger waves, and the colors were more of what we had “left” after nearly completing the port side. We decided to leave the austere ladder on the stern as an item of interest, and placed the name of the project, “All Hands on Deck” across the top.
Community service hours were available to students who wanted/needed hours and we were grateful for the help. The consistency was appreciated. Several of the Saturdays we were working on the boat there were groups of scouts assisting us. What a delight to be working with such enthusiastic souls.
‘Tis within the youth the direction of the future resides. Contemplate on that.