Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs Receives a $10,000 Grant from the Island Foundation, Inc.

January 10, 2022

(Boston, MA) – For the third consecutive year, Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs (Bow Seat) has received a $10,000 grant from the Island Foundation, Inc., to support our work educating students about ocean health and climate change, uplifting youth voices for environmental conservation, and inspiring them to participate in positive, creative actions.

This grant supports Bow Seat’s Ocean Awareness Contest (Contest), an annual, global educational initiative that invites youth to learn about and explore the connections between human activities and the health of our ocean through visual and performing arts, creative writing, poetry and spoken word, film, and multimedia. More than 24,000 middle and high schoolers from all 50 U.S. states and over 130 countries have participated in the program, which has been at the forefront of introducing them to critical issues such as climate change, plastic pollution, water justice, and endangered species.

With the theme “The Funny Thing About Climate Change,” the 2022 Contest challenges students to create innovative pieces that subvert expectations for what climate change messaging typically looks like through fresh approaches such as humor, satire, parody, irony, avant-garde, and positivity. The Island Foundation’s generous support will help Bow Seat:

• Increase participation of students from Southeastern Massachusetts, the Cape and Islands, and the overall state, growing the number of Commonwealth teens who have the knowledge, skills, and confidence to be creators of positive change.
• Assist Massachusetts educators in sponsoring their students’ participation in the Contest, despite the challenges resulting from the current public health crisis, in order to encourage interdisciplinary and intersectional environmental learning.
• For all of the above goals, increase engagement among those who are most affected, but often underrepresented, in conservation efforts, especially voices of color.

“We have valued the Island Foundation’s partnership over the past two challenging years, and we look forward to continuing to work together on our shared mission to promote the conservation of marine and coastal resources,” said Linda Cabot, founder and president of Bow Seat. “We are excited to see how students will surprise and captivate us through humor and other unexpected approaches to raise awareness of the climate crisis while offering a safe way for people to approach, understand, and start conversations about this critical issue.”

The 2022 Ocean Awareness Contest is open now through June 13, 2022, to middle and high school students ages 11-18 worldwide.

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About Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs: Bow Seat is a Massachusetts-based nonprofit whose mission is to educate and engage youth in ocean conservation and advocacy through the arts. Visit bowseat.org for more information about the Ocean Awareness Contest, upcoming initiatives and events, and collection of student artwork and creative media.