Richard Dymond
The Bradenton Herald
MANATEE, Fla. — Seven youthful offenders took the wheel of a 42-foot sailboat named “Grace” on a voyage from Manatee County to St. Petersburg and Egmont Key this weekend during a rehab program test run.
It wasn’t a perfect trip but it wasn’t far from it.
Five of the young men came home smiling and exuberant, talking nonstop about their adventures. Two others sat off by themselves after the trip at the dock at Ramanda Inn on U.S. 41 in Manatee County and didn’t take part in a group photo.
“Five out of seven,” said Mike Long, founder of the nonprofit program called SailFuture. “You know, many of these kids have had friends and family die. A lot of people who have come into their lives have left. I think for those two it will just take more time.”
This weekend trek was a tryout for an ambitious pilot program Long calls Sailfuture Odyssey. Odyssey will eventually be a five-month voyage for at-risk male teens stopping in eight different countries if Long and his SailFu
ture partner, Mark Hunter, can raise $500,000 through community support or charitable foundations.
Odyssey would launch in August as an alternative to residential-treatment centers, Long said.
All teens on this weekend’s trip have “papers,” street slang for being on probation for offenses such as selling drugs, theft or robbery.
For a weekend, however, they saw the sunset on the water, were out of sight of land, learned to look for channel markers, fixed meals for homeless people in St. Petersburg and told funny and scary stories around a campfire at Egmont Key.
A teen named Junior -- the Herald is using just the youth’s first names -- said he was excited about the trip, which the teens took with probation officer Bill McCullough of the Department of Juvenile Justice, Circuit 13, along with Hunter and Long.
Junior said his best moment was in St. Petersburg when he and the other boys donned T-shirts that read: “Free Hugs.”
“Seeing the smiles, knowing we gave some love,” Junior said. “Some of the people I hugged might have perceived me before as a thug.”
Junior also said he was amazed Long wanted to spend his entire weekend with the seven of them.
“We were total strangers to him,” Junior said. “It’s weird to me.”
“I had fun,” Long replied with a grin.
Long also encouraged the teens.
Long told Tiaundre he was a born chef, to which Tiaundre, who grilled chicken for the crew, said he would like to open a restaurant some day called, “T Smith Soul Food.”
Long told Quinton his best job was to be a good father to a baby daughter on the way.
“Nick turned out to be a pretty good sailor and leader,” Long said.
“Junior could sell a snowman on a hot day in Florida and convince people it won’t melt,” Long added.
Quinton won a $20 prize from Long for giving the most hugs. Junior suggested they take the $20 and buy ham and cheese and bread for the homeless people in downtown St. Petersburg.
McCullough said he will file a positive report on SailFuture as a possible permanent option for youths.
“Absolutely, no question,” McCullough said. “It gave them a self-awareness outside of their environment. It makes them feel: ‘Hey, someone cares about me.’ ”
The sailboat was donated by Stephen Rushton, associate professor of education at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee who has set up the nonprofit John Stephen Phillippe Educational Foundation to support troubled youth, including those who need emotional healing. The Foundation is named for Rushton’s grandfather, John; himself; and his dad, Philippe.
Rushton met Long about a year ago. The two soon realized they had a similar passion for helping youths and Long began taking students from Booker High School out on Grace after school.
“Michael brought five or six boys out on the boat recently,” Rushton said. “These were inner-city kids. They talked about being from the ‘hood.’ Then I heard one say, ‘Oh my God, this is so serene.’ My head cocked. That’s not the type of language you expect to hear from someone who says they are from the hood. But being on the water for that moment meant something and I don’t think that young man had that experience before.
“When the motor gets turned off and the sails are out and the silence is there, there is something quite magical for these kids that they don’t get in the context within which they live,” Rushton said. “Their context is violence and mother coming out of jail and grandfather in jail, not the wind. But we put them behind the wheel of a boat and make them figure where the wind is coming from and they have to pay attention. All of the sudden life becomes something different. It becomes: ‘Oh, the wind is coming. I need to set the sail.’ ”