Submitted by Youth Marine Foundation.
It’s 100 feet long, weighs 100 tons and can handle nearly 100 seventh graders at once. Meet the MV Doolin-Rogers, MV Doolin-Rogers, a training vessel that will be a marine education center for Tacoma School District students.
The Youth Marine Foundation brings the vessel to Tacoma and invites the community to greet the boat at its new home on the Thea Foss Waterway on Sunday, October 9. The celebration runs 12:30-4:30 p.m. at the Tacoma Youth Marine Center, 820 East D Street, Tacoma. The boat will arrive about 1 p.m., escorted by Tacoma Fire, Tacoma Police and the Tacoma Yacht Club.
The vessel will be used for marine education for students—all 7th graders in the Tacoma School District will have a learning opportunity aboard the 100-foot ship in 2023.
The MV Doolin-Rogers is a commercially licensed,100-ton aluminum vessel that was completely remodeled in 2015 under the supervision of Captain Charles Doolin, a Dallas-based philanthropist. The vessel employs updated technology and maritime systems and will accommodate 100 students, along with a licensed captain and two deckhands. The first Tacoma high school maritime operations class aboard the vessel begins on Monday, October 10.
The arrival of the vessel is the culmination of a year-long capital campaign, launched by the Youth Marine Foundation (YMF), to purchase the vessel and bring it to the YMF campus on the Foss Waterway. The Ben B. Cheney Foundation made a substantial donation to lead the effort as the Platinum Funding Sponsor.
“This is an opportunity to celebrate this amazing new training vessel and to thank our supporters and volunteers who made this dream a reality,” said Monique Valenzuela, Youth Marine Foundation executive director and CEO.
