Ohana Roots Fine Art and Boatbuilding Center

 

Hello!

We are John Puckett and Felicia Cinquegrana Puckett. We are in the process of creating a wilderness immersive fine art and wooden boatbuilding educational center, with a focus on serving low income, high need and underserved youth, Veterans groups, and others who can benefit from learning new skills and the zen of the wilderness. We have been working toward this goal for many years and finally began offering classes on a small scale this past winter! John is a Captain, Wooden Boat Builder, and carpenter, and I am an Art Teacher with a Masters Degree in Art Education which I acquired for the sole purpose of someday starting this program. My teaching career has always been geared toward working with underserved populations. Art is a fantastic outlet for self-expression, realization, and creative problem-solving while outfitting the student with real-life skills like welding or carpentry. We found and purchased the perfect piece of land to house our camp four years ago and built a straw bale home by hand. We are now ready to shift our focus entirely to starting our educational programming but need some help!

Our first goal is to build a studio/ community space this spring, allowing us to hold much larger classes and offer other programs to the community like yoga, sound baths and live music! After building the studio, and summer classes are underway, we will start construction on a woodshop that will house Johns boatbuilding shop where he can teach all of his woodworking and boatbuilding classes and workshops, and finally begin construction on a fleet of aquaculture workboats that he designed! ! We will need to add some parking and bring electricity to the barn from the road seeing our house is off-grid. We also need many tools and supplies to outfit our classes and would gladly accept tool donations in lieu of financial backing.

John and I started with the dream to help people reconnect with nature and learn or re-learn how to use their hands to create, and problem solve. Woodworking, boat building, ceramics, welding, blacksmithing, silversmithing, fine arts, digging in the dirt, farming, hiking, and sailing are just a few of the skills we want to share. We both grew up with families that could build anything and were taught that we could do anything we put our minds, hearts, and hands to. We feel that the art of handiwork is being lost, and imagination and creativity are integral skills that help in so many aspects of life. We want to show the next generation of youth and adults that you can learn and create. We know the $30,000 goal is just the tip of the iceberg, but it is a massive step forward that will allow us to break ground on crucial projects, bring in more students and partner with more programs and school groups right away! We cannot even begin to convey how much we appreciate your help with this. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts <3

Some (Dream List) Tools Needed:

Table Saw

Drill Press

Planer

Joiner

Pottery Wheels

Pottery Kiln

Oxy/Propane jewelry torches

Welders:

MIG

TIG

Oxy/Acetylene

Plasma cutter

Forge

Any hand tool