Delaware Valley Friends Students Help US Coast Guard Rescue 17 Cuban Refugees
Key West, Florida, December 20, 2010 – A group of 11 high school
students and two teachers from the Delaware Valley Friends School were
onboard the sailing vessel Dream Catcher for a six day sail out of Key
West with Captains John Duke and Allen Weeks.
On the morning of
the fourth day – December 20th – the crew of DVFS students were
preparing to row the 30 foot longboat Aida to shore at the Marquesas
Keys, 23 miles west of Key West. Preparations were interrupted when
they saw a US Navy helicopter circling an area less than two miles
away. With binoculars, they could clearly see a group of Cuban refugees
in the mangroves of an adjacent island. It is not uncommon to find
derelict boats and other items left behind by Cuban refugees, but it is
very rare to be the first on the scene when a group of refugees makes it
to land.
Captain John radioed the US Coast Guard to inform
them of the crew’s location and to offer assistance if needed. The crew
then loaded crackers and water into the longboat and started off to see
if they could aid the group of refugees.
Captain John and the
DVFS students welcomed the refugees to America and delivered the food
and water, which was quickly and gratefully consumed. Despite a
significant language barrier, Captain John and the students were able to
piece together the story of how these refugees had come to this tiny
spit of land in the Florida Keys.
The 17 refugees – 12 men, 5
women including one woman who was 6 months pregnant – left Cuba 26 hours
before in a 20 foot open boat with only the clothes on their backs and
what they could carry in their pockets. They had traversed 90 miles in 8
to 10 foot seas – bailing water constantly out of the boat so that it
wouldn’t sink. Their boat ran aground on a sandbar at 3:00 am and they
had to wade through shallow water and deep mud in the dark to the
mangrove covered island where the DVFS students found them later that
day. They were exhausted, hungry, and cold – some suffering from
hypothermia.
With the Coast Guard now anchored a couple of
hundred yards offshore, the students rowed the longboat back out to
watch the rescue. However, because of the outgoing tide, the Coast
Guard launch could not reach the refugees. After a short conversation
between Captain John and the Coast Guard, the DVFS students were asked
to shuttle the Cubans from the shoreline to the Coast Guard Launch.
Over
the next few hours, the DV students shuttled members of the refugee
group six at a time from the shoreline to the Coast Guard boats until
all 17 were aboard the Coast Guard vessel and headed back to Miami.
“Adventure
learning is all about teachable moments – and it doesn’t get any better
than this,” said Ken Sinapius, Director of Delaware Valley Friends’
ABLE (Adventure Based Learning Experiences) program. “I’ve been doing
this for 25 years, and if this was not the best it was definitely in the
top five of all time great teachable moments.”
Outward Bound
Founder Kurt Hahn says, “The aim of education is to impel young people
into value forming experiences.” Sinapius believes that as a result of
this experience with the Cuban refugees, some of the DVFS students did
form new personal values, which is what the school’s ABLE program is all
about.
“This was a very touching experience,” commented DVFS
senior Zoe Berman who was one of the students involved in the rescue.
“The people we helped rescue left everything behind for a better life in
America, and they were so grateful for our help that they gave Captain
John a rosary, and were trying to share their food with us. When we told
them they were safe, the look in their eyes was amazing. You could see
the joy – probably the first joy they had felt since they left Cuba.”
Two
days after the rescue, Captain John received word that the refugees had
been granted immigrant status and were now working their way through
the immigration process in Miami, Florida.
___________________
To learn more about our Delaware Valley Friends School,
please contact Mary Ellen Trent, Director of Admissions at
maryellen.trent@dvfs.org, visit our web site at www.dvfs.org or call
(610) 640-4150.