SAN FRANCISCO MARITIME NATIONAL PARK ASSOCIATION
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Mission Statement
Bringing our maritime heritage to life through education, preservation and philanthropy
About This Cause
Since 1950, San Francisco Maritime National Park Association has worked to bring maritime history to life for visitors of the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1954 the Association acquired the tall ship Balclutha, renovated it and opened it for public tours, thereby expanding the concept of what a maritime museum might become. Over the past four decades, the Association has played an integral role in the development of Victorian Park and Hyde Street Pier as historical sites. Today, the Association partners with the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park to preserve the ships of Hyde Street Pier, some of which are now over 130 years old, and are stewards of the USS Pampanito WWII submarine, which just reached its 75th birthday. Housed just down the street from Hyde Street Pier at Pier 45, more than 110,000 people visit USS Pampanito annually, making it one of the most popular historical naval vessels in the country. Experiential Outdoor Education Programs For over 40 years of the Association’s long history, we have been running experiential education programs with approximately 250 programs and 17,000 participants a year. Run from the decks of historic ships like Balclutha and Pampanito, these fully-immersive educational programs provide a unique opportunity for teachers to bring the many strands of the California education standards together in one hands-on, goal-oriented framework. Teachers can use our manuals as a guide to create lesson plans, not just on the history and social science curriculum, but also math, science, technology, language arts, and visual and performing arts. Whether it’s the physics of how a block-and-tackle works, the earth sciences of tides, or the music and poetry of sea chanteys, the core themes of the standards are presented in a lively and imaginative way. Population Served The Association’s education programs are available to all interested 4th through 12th grade school groups. We actively extend our outreach efforts to provide for children from underserved communities. Our programs support California curriculum education requirements and introduce new and ethnically diverse audiences to the experience of visiting a National Park and a renowned educational and character-building experience. Our education programs serve over 10,000 school children annually, with 20% of participating students being offered scholarships from donations and grants raised by the Association. Throughout the programs’ existence, we have served well over 300,000 Northern California students. Participating schools run the full spectrum of public private, and charter schools from the greater bay area with some schools coming from as far away as Chico, Tracy, Boonville, Sacramento, Reno, and Oregon. The Maritime Park welcomes nearly three million visitors annually from around the world and the Bay Area. Program Goals and Objectives The Association runs many programs that fall under three main categories: 1) Living History; 2) Science Sailing Adventures; and 3) Boat Building and Sailing. Our flagship program is the Age of Sail overnight, where school groups are brought back to 1906 and become the crew of the square-rigged sailing ship Balclutha for an evening. Each of our programs have many goals and objectives that can also be classified into three main categories: 1) Teaching History through Experiential Learning; 2) Supporting Teachers and California Education Standards; and 3) Teaching Leadership, Teamwork, Confidence, Self-reliance, and Community Enrichment. At the end of our programs, students will not only have learned important science and history themes that match their grade requirements, they will also have developed self-confidence and self-reliance, which in turn fosters a sense of responsibility for themselves, their classmates, and their community. Program Results These are life-changing experiences that the students will remember forever. The education programs at Hyde Street Pier are time-tested with decades of development and evolution. Over the past thirty years, in-depth studies and written evaluations by teachers, parents and children have repeatedly extolled the measurable gains in subject proficiency and the positive impact of the program, both in the classroom and at home. One mother who served as a tall-sailor chaperone for an Age of Sail program recently wrote: "Thank you so much for what you do! It really is remarkable and I feel lucky my daughter and I have had this experience. My oldest daughter did this program 3 years ago and it was life changing for her!! She suddenly had this amazing drive to be a leader - is now school president.” When asked if they would recommend our program, she wrote a very emphatic: “YES! YES! YES!” This shows how we do not just claim to teach teamwork and leadership; we have demonstrated for generations our ability to inspire kids to strive and do more for their community by showing them the teamwork and leadership strength they have. There are teachers that have been bringing their classes every year for ten years, twenty years, or more. Students continue to come to the pier as visitors with their families. Many parents coming to the program now were once students on the program when they were kids. Some of the newer teachers are also, themselves, returning students who once experienced the program when they were younger. And some students still have grown-up to become Age of Sail Instructors themselves.