Seas of Peace preparing for second summer on the Atlantic with 18 Seeds

NEW YORK | The Seas of Peace program, a part of the Seeds of Peace Camp in Maine, will be launching its second summer beginning on June 24 and running through July 18.

This sailing program brings together 18 Israeli, Palestinian, and American youth with the common goal of conflict resolution. The curriculum includes two 90-minute sessions of facilitated leadership dialogue a day. The leadership dialogue is based on three leadership frameworks developed at Harvard University–Dignity, Immunity to Change, and Adaptive Leadership. When not participating in dialogue, Seeds continuously partake in collaborative work and community life.

Participating teens have spent at least one summer at the Camp in Maine. Opening the program to a group who are already involved in Seeds of Peace ensures that all participants are committed to the Seeds of Peace mission and allows for more advanced discussions that build off of a previously developed understanding of the conflict.

Seeds must be willing to put aside differences and work with one another in order to operate the ship.

“On a 110-foot schooner, you’ve got to trust that while you’re sleeping, somebody else is running the boat in a safe manner, keeping watch,” says Seas of Peace Co-Founder David Nutt. “You’ve got to trust that the cooking is going to get done, that the cleaning is going to get done. And if anybody isn’t a member of that big team the whole thing is going to fall apart.”

Nutt and fellow Co-Founder Monica Balanoff worked at Seeds of Peace as counselors and grew up sailing. Both completed circumnavigations of the globe at early ages, Nutt with his family, and Balanoff with the high school semester at sea program Class Afloat. The Class Afloat program shares many of the same goals and values as Seas of Peace including the development of leadership skills and encouragement of intellectual curiosity.

Seeds will arrive in Portland on June 24, where they will live in dormitories at a local community college. Using the facilities of SailMaine in Portland Harbor, they will learn the basics of sailing, acquiring knowledge such as rigging a boat, tacking, and steering. During their stay, they will also meet with local religious communities and volunteer at Catherine’s Cupboard, a food pantry run by St. Joseph’s College.

Following the 10 days of preparation, Seeds will set sail from Portland, Maine, aboard Spirit of Massachusetts. They will reach New York City on July 8 or 9, depending on weather conditions, where they will get to see many prominent landmarks including the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and the UN Headquarters. The ship will dock for two days in New York City before sailing up to Boston, which they will reach in mid-July.

In New York City and Boston, media are invited to see the Seeds in action. Water taxis are a great way to accompany the Seeds as they sail into and away from the dock and provide an opportunity to capture footage in front of New York skyline.

This summer follows the highly successful pilot program in 2011, from which participating Seeds came away with a renewed hope of peace, which was especially significant given developments in the Middle East last spring. Nutt and Balanoff hope to eventually transition to a full academic semester program, which would be the first at-sea semester program dedicated to providing youth from conflict regions with leadership and peacemaking skills.