Programs for children, youth and seniors expand horizons and offer career possibilities.

Programs for Children

Target age: 7 to 12 years

This program is geared to children who attend summer programs run by local nonprofit organizations. The timeline is July - August. In summer 2006 in NYC, this program reached a demographic of predominantly low- income children.

Goals
Our goals are to introduce children ages 7 to 12 to the rich history of our waterfront in a fun, informative setting, while teaching them the importance of our working waterfronts in relationship to our global economy.

In-House Program
In the summer of 2006, the WHC implemented a program that combined in class workshops followed by a two-hour boat tour of the working waterfronts of NY/NJ. WHC members visited community organizations to talk to the children about shipping vessels, containers and containerization and the impact of the maritime industry in our global economy. A lego model of a Maersk container vessel was used as a learning tool — all groups had a chance to assemble the Lego model and then participate in an interactive workshop on the role of container vessels and containerization.

As part of the workshop, children were asked to guess the contents of the containers — responses solicited from the children ranged from toys to clothes to electronic games to cotton candy! The role of port terminals were discussed, combining the role of tugboats and container vessels.

Water Tour
These workshops were followed by a two-hour boat tour of the working waterfronts of NY/NJ. All involved were given a workbook depicting objects and sights they may see on the tour, including tugboats, container vessels, port terminals and barges. The children were asked to check off pictures of objects they saw, while volunteers answered questions and helped the children identify pictures in the workbook.

Guest lecturers were invited on all the children tours — representatives from McAllister Towing, PANYNJ, New York Container Terminal and the Army Corps of Engineers were among the participants. In addition to pointing out sights in the harbor, the guest lecturers talked about the types of jobs afforded by their industry.

A tour of a port terminal will be included in future programs.