'Building' Creativity
Great Lakes Boat School Projects Taking Shape

At left: Julie Whiting of Zionsville, Indiana, shows the metal centaur sculpture she cast Wednesday, August 22, during the class at the Great Lakes Boat Building School. A former Eastern Upper Peninsula resident who has been away for 10 years, she still comes here to visit an aunt and uncle in Rudyard, Clara Jo and Henry Jarvie. She heard about the classes at the school while she was at this year's Les Cheneaux Antique Wooden Boat Show and Festival of Arts. The class is taught by Dr. Dan Fields, a third- generation foundry man and a professor at Eastern Michigan University's school of technology in Ypsilanti.

Master boat builder Mike Kiefer of South Haven (right, with hands on boat) instructs a group of students while teaching a boat building course at the Great Lakes Boat Building School in Cedarville. Using plans for a historic boat called Chippewa, Mr. Kiefer is lending his experience to the course, which is one of three offered free this month to get people into the school and give them a taste of what the school has to offer. Anywhere from 40 to 60 people at a time have been at the school daily to attend the classes.