Western Pennsylvania is coal-mining country, and Jefferson, a small, rural town of 8,000 people located north of the West Virginia border, doesn't see many sailors. In fact, the nearest sailable water is over three hours away. But when Jefferson-Morgan High School industrial technology teacher David White, a sailor for over 40 years, proposed building a racing dinghy and launching a scaled-down version of an America's Cup campaign, 66 students, using math, science, English, and the Internet, rallied to build, promote, and learn from the project. None of them had sailing experience, but the prospect of sailing sounded a lot more fun than lounging in the lawn furniture they had previously made. Once the first boat was finished, the community offered its support, and a town that had only seen a few canoes and an occasional aluminum john boat, became the home port for a group of junior sailors eager to learn the sport.

They built a 16-foot International Fireball-a high-performance double-handed dinghy, complete with trapeze wires and spinnaker. Within two years, their craftsmanship and knowledge made their campaign a reality. They had restored two old Fireballs, built two new ones, and launched an official regatta challenge to neighboring school districts. On Sept. 30 to Oct. 1, 2000, with crowds lining the shore, Baldwin, Fox Chapel, and Jefferson-Morgan High Schools donned PFDs, and sailed onto Lake Pymatuning for the first heat in the second annual True Value Cup.

"We decided to build our own boat says White. "The Pact ‘95 America’s Cup syndicate originally designed the curriculum, but its downfall was that it was based around building model boats. We said, 'Why not build full-size boats?' Then it just snowballed into a huge interdisciplinary project"

During the fall of 1998 White organized Jefferson-Morgan classes into teams, which were responsible for planning, constructing, publicizing, and, finally, racing the boat. Math "teams" used techniques such as plotting, measuring, and calibrating angles and curves needed to cut and create the various pieces of the boat. Industrial technology students were responsible for building the boat; physics students learned about the physics of sailing; and the English class was responsible for public relations, which entailed writing articles and press releases to promote the other students' efforts-one of the most important components to any Cup program's success.

It worked. Once the word got out, the community took notice and the program took off. In fact, Mark Pochran, owner and operator of the True Value Hardware in Dry Tavern, PA, jumped at the opportunity to sponsor the program through the True Value Tools for Tomorrow Program, and donated team T-shirts, hats, and an 18-inch sterling silver trophy.

True Value Tools for Tomorrow Program, and donated team T-shirts, hats, and an 18-inch sterling silver trophy.

"It felt really good" said Lainey White,18, who plans to sail next year at college. "I built the boat on my own, did everything that was needed, and then won the Cup. The boat did really well. It took on some water, but it was still fast. Now I want to travel, help other people, and show them what I can do"

Jefferson-Morgan has currently amassed a fleet of four Fireballs-two are in race-ready condition-and David White's class is about to start another boat. But this time, even the state is helping to fund the program. Out of 502 school districts in Pennsylvania, Jefferson-Morgan was one of only three to win a grant from the Pennsylvania State Education Association for innovative use of technology in the classroom. With this increased support, White is confident that more schools will follow Jefferson-Morgan's lead and build more boats, which will boost participation in the Cup.

Acklin and skipper Brian Burkett are graduating this year, but they've purchased one of the Fireballs from the program and plan to sail the 2001 Fireball Midwinters in March, and the Fireball Worlds in 2002. "I told my friends I was buying a sailboat" says Acklin, "and they asked, 'Why?' If I had said I was buying a motorboat, they'd understand. They don't think you can go fast in a sailboat, but I plan to show them"