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At-risk youths team up
By Crystal Kua
to chart a course through
troubled waters
Star-BulletinLife hasn't been smooth sailing for 14-year-old Chivasco "Bucki" Tomoichi.
With his father behind bars and his mother using drugs, Tomoichi soon found himself with no incentive to go to school but every reason to stay up late and party each night.
"I had plenty stress when I was growing up," the Jarrett Middle School seventh-grader said.
But since entering David Dunaway's special motivation program at the Palolo Valley school, Tomoichi thinks he may finally be on the right course, as he steers clear of his past and navigates toward a more promising horizon -- with a little help from a milk-carton canoe.
"If I neva have this program, I probably wouldn't even come school. I would be with my mom smoking weed," Tomoichi said.
Tomoichi and other students from Dunaway's class are participating in the fourth-annual Meadow Gold Milk Carton Regatta today at Ala Moana Beach Park. Eleven middle schools and nine high schools are entered in the race that looks at which team has the best design and maritime skills.
Building the boats not only helped the students hone in on their math, science and drafting skills. It also taught them lessons and skills that they say will be valuable in life.
"It was cool. You gotta work together, team work. You gotta be focused. If you not focused, you going break one of your boat arms," Tomoichi said.
"It gave them a strong sense of accomplishment and to be accountable," teacher Dunaway said. "It wasn't the competition or the winning. It was creating something that they could feel proud of."
Dunaway's special motivation program is an offshoot of the Department of Education's Comprehensive Student Alienation Program for at-risk youth.
His students' problems include drugs, truancy and life at home.
"We take students that really don't fit in a traditional school and put them in a nontraditional, project-based program," Dunaway said. "You cannot concentrate on academics when you're thinking about your mom who got arrested last night or your dad who is in prison."
The program has two components -- work ethic and character building -- with a concentration on math and language arts. Dunaway acknowledged that his approach is a bit militaristic, but his class knows what his underlying motives are.
"We get down on them but we make sure they understand why. It's because we care," he said.
Dunaway and outreach counselor Jason Masuda also reach out to students' families, referring them to outside agencies if necessary.
"These kids gotta feel like they're cared for," Dunaway said. "Many times, they don't feel that way."
Tomoichi said it was a family fight that led to him being counseled by Dunaway and his peers in class and to him eventually deciding to give up drinking.
Tomoichi's class last year took up the boat-building project. Three students from that crop decided they wanted to do it again this year.
Two-by-fours created the skeleton of the boat; milk cartons are used as the skin and as stuffing to create buoyancy.
Earlier this week, the crew took the boat on a test run and the results could be viewed as a reflection of the canoe as well as its builders.
"It did better than we hoped it would. We were really pleased," Dunaway said.
