The Most Easterly Published Newspaper in the US

Published the 2nd and 4th Fridays of each month

Sipayik program to offer adventures

The upcoming Beatrice Rafferty School sixth graders will enjoy a one-year adventure recreation program that combines sports and cultural skills envisioned by the Sipayik Action Team (SAT). The Rising Eagles Project is a pilot study that was awarded a $10,000 grant by the Maine Community...

The upcoming Beatrice Rafferty School sixth graders will enjoy a one‑year adventure recreation program that combines sports and cultural skills envisioned by the Sipayik Action Team (SAT). The Rising Eagles Project is a pilot study that was awarded a $10,000 grant by the Maine Community Foundation with the hope "that the success of this pilot study will be used as a model to apply for much bigger grants, so that all the youth can benefit from cultural adventure programming and leadership training within our community," explains Minquansis Sapiel, a substance abuse counselor at the Pleasant Point Health Center.
Sapiel brought a team of community members together to create the project -- psychologist Sue Carroll‑Duffy, Ph.D; Gloria Lewey‑Cleaves, diabetes coordinator, Pleasant Point Health Center; Rena Newell, director of education; Genevieve Doughty, Launch grant program coordinator; Cyril Francis, guidance counselor at Beatrice Rafferty School -- and coordinated with Scott Fraser, director of Washington County Community College's Outdoor Adventure Center, to help bring its programs to Sipayik.
"The Sipayik community suffered four deaths from three overdoses and a suicide in a two‑month period. These tragedies cemented the group's intention and commitment to bringing in more positive programs into our community, even though it was in none of our job descriptions to write grants," Sapiel says. "We decided that we would go for it anyway. SAT understood that to fight against substance abuse within our community it would take a community effort to do so. We have welcomed community members to attend our meetings and get involved. We were supported by the tribal government, chief, vice chief and council members and all of the tribal organizations we worked for that allowed us to meet every week to work on our ideas and vision of the Rising Eagles Project. The SAT team also coordinated a meeting to meet with our tribal leaders to discuss programming."
Sapiel comments, "We are so excited. We as a team did so much work on it."
The Rising Eagles Project will focus on wall climbing in the fall, snowshoeing and skiing in the winter, canoeing in the spring and sailing in the summer. At its heart, the program will bring traditional Passamaquoddy beliefs and culture into the lives of the sixth graders through adventure recreation. "The SAT's mission is to build a strong Passamaquoddy identity and prevent substance abuse. Four core values will be a part of the teachings, which are safety, trust/teamwork, perseverance and giving back," says Sapiel. The values will be taught in various ways, including cultural stories, and each activity will have a three‑part framework that develops reflection and learning before, during and after.
As an example, Sapiel points to the use of canoes "as a strong connection to our own Passamaquoddy history. Canoes were used as our vehicle for fishing, hunting and traveling the waterways, which were also used during whale hunts many years ago. Regaining our cultural history -- learning the skills and the values at its heart -- is a big part of the program's goal to build a stronger Passamaquoddy identity in our tribal youth." Medicine wheel practices will be included. Sapiel stresses, "We're hoping to see at the end of the year that basically the sixth graders will come out of it with a much stronger, healthier, more confident perception of themselves as a person and who they are as a Passamaquoddy -- that they have some more connection to outdoors and a sense of pride in our culture."
Sapiel explains, "We've learned that you can teach resilience through using the mindset growth model with this program. They will learn how to use challenges to overcome obstacles and see challenges as a learning lesson to not give up and build skills to get to where they want to be in life, with pride in heritage and confidence in culture and a skill set to lead them away from a path of alcohol and drug use is our ultimate goal."
In addition, the team is creating a canoe and cultural day in August a week before Indian Days. There will be a weekend class with an expert who will teach and certify members of the community to become teachers. Sapiel says, "It's a teach‑the‑teacher event so that they can then teach kids safety skills while being out on the water."
For more information contact Minquansis Sapiel at <msapiel@gmail.com>.