Boatbuilding With Aiken High School

By Ben Woods

Four paddles. Two snowshoes. One canoe. And a teeter-totter for chickens.

That’s what a group of ESL students from Aiken High School built earlier this month with the help of our Urban Wilderness Program staff. The students—hailing from more than 20 countries around the globe—spent 10 days learning and implementing techniques such as steam-bending, lashing, lacing, riveting, skinning and paddle carving.

Because the build took place at the school’s community garden, which includes a chicken coop, they constructed an avian playground for good measure.