Toyota USA Foundation Lends an Oar to Rocking the Boat

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Toyota USA Foundation Lends an Oar to Rocking the Boat
$166,000 Grant Helps Inner City Youth Acquire Practical, Academic and Social Skills Through On-Water Education Program

05/05/2006
NEW YORK--May 5, 2006 -- Rocking the Boat, Inc., a non-profit boatbuilding and on-water education program based out of the southwest Bronx, has been named the recipient of a $166,232 grant from the Toyota USA Foundation. The grant will help support the expansion of Rocking the Boat's Community On-Water program, a daytime rowing and environmental education program geared towards inner city youth and integrated into their high-school curriculum.

Rocking the Boat's Community On-Water program grew out of its successful after-school Traditional Boat Building and On-Water Education programs, which to date have involved over 350 high school students in the construction and use of 17 traditional wooden rowing, sailing, and paddling boats. The Toyota USA Foundation grant will provide funding over a three-year period to serve an additional 700 participants annually during the school day through the Community On-Water program. Students participating in the Rocking the Boat youth development programs each school semester have the opportunity to learn how to build and use traditional wooden rowing boats, while engaging in various environmental science and maritime activities such as habitat monitoring, nautical map reading, water sampling, shoreline restoration, and more.

"With the grant from the Toyota USA Foundation, we'll be able to expand our after-school program to the Community On-Water program, extending our reach and enabling us to serve hundreds of students in the community," said Adam Green, Executive Director of Rocking the Boat. "The expansion provides us the opportunity to enhance and broaden the academic curriculum throughout New York City, encouraging not only students, but teachers and entire schools to learn academic subjects through awareness of their own local natural environments."

"Toyota is proud to support worthwhile programs that share our beliefs in the value of education and helping our environment," said Patricia Pineda, group vice president of Toyota Motor North America, Inc. "Grassroots programs such as Rocking the Boat are vital in helping to raise interest in environmental education, allowing participants to learn science through real-world, hands-on experiences, while expanding their personal horizons. We hope that this grant from the Toyota USA Foundation will further expand Rocking the Boat's programs to help students take what they've learned in the classroom and bring it to life on water."

"My life has changed so much since I've been involved in Rocking the Boat," said Michelle Ferdinand, On-Water Apprentice, age 17. "People look up to me differently. When people ask me what I do when I'm not at school, I say I work on the Bronx River. They say, 'What? What do you do over there?' When I answer the question, I feel unique."

In addition to Rocking the Boat, Inc., other recipients of Toyota USA Foundation awards are Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA; Trees for Tomorrow Natural Resource Specialty School, Eagle River, WI; the University of Montana Foundation, Missoula, MT; the Zoological Society of San Diego, San Diego, CA; the Saint Louis Science Center, St. Louis, MO and National 4-H Council, Chevy Chase, Md.

About Rocking the Boat
Rocking the Boat is a boatbuilding and on-water education program based out of the southwest Bronx, New York City. Through a hands-on alternative approach to education and youth development, Rocking the Boat addresses the need for inner city youth to achieve practical and tangible goals, relevant to both everyday life and future aspirations. This process allows high school students to acquire practical, academic, and social skills. Rocking the Boat runs programming in both boatbuilding and environmental science, coordinating three after school and summer programs in each discipline annually, working directly with over 150 students, all of whom receive high school credit. During the process of building a traditional wooden boat, Rocking the Boat students create something not only beautiful, but practical in their own lives, bridging urban and natural life within their neighborhoods. This approach is mirrored in the on-water education program through direct focus on Bronx River habitat monitoring and restoration and through maritime life skills programming. Both programs allow students opportunities to gain a deeper awareness of their own abilities and possibilities in the natural and urban world.

About Toyota USA Foundation
The Toyota USA Foundation is a $42 million charitable endowment created to support education programs serving kindergarten through 12th grade students and their teachers in the United States. The Foundation's emphasis is on supporting mathematics and science. For additional information about the Toyota USA Foundation, visit www.toyota.com/foundation.