Skippers program graduates receive Perseverance awards for working through pandemic

BLUE HILL—Only seven students graduated from the 2021 Eastern Maine Skippers Program as a result of the pandemic, Tom Duym, Fisheries Education Specialist for the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries in Stonington, said during a June 17 Perseverance awards program at George Stevens Academy.

- JEFFREY B. ROTH

During the 2020-21 school year, about 30 students from the nine participating high schools that serve fishing communities encompassing 200 miles of coastal eastern Maine were enrolled in the Skippers Program. Of the seven graduates, six attended George Stevens Academy and one attended Deer Isle-Stonington High School.

“These students are being recognized for continued work in the program despite the effects of the pandemic on school schedules and formats,” Duym said. “It’s more of a cash award to seniors who are graduating because they stuck it out through the year, which hasn’t been an easy task for either teachers or students—a lot of them shut it down for the year because they just didn’t have the staffing to cover all of the required academics both online and in-house to do this. We’ve had a very small group this year.”