The Inland Seas Education Association (ISEA) has new momentum, thanks to the arrival of a new school ship, several grants, and the initial steps in a complete renovation of its Suttons Bay facility. “I think it’s all a very big deal, with lots of potential,” says Fred Sitkins, the organization’s executive director.

The 65-foot schooner Utopia was gifted by Ellsworth Peterson, retired chairman of the ship-building firm Peterson Builders of Wisconsin.

The arrival of the schooner will allow the organization to offer more programs to students. It will be parked at the Discovery Pier in Traverse City, which Sitkins says will help the organization in its efforts to work more closely with the Discovery Center and the Traverse City community.

Built in 1946 by Peterson, Utopia’s maiden voyage in 1947 included a cruise of the North Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea and Caribbean Islands. In 1956, the ship embarked on a three-year cruise around the world. Utopia has logged more than 60,000 miles, including several Chicago-Mackinac races.

A grant from the Worthington Foundation will allow Inland Seas to purchase a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) and develop an underwater course for school groups and the public beginning in 2017. This program will be run from Utopia. “This has been part of a long term idea to expand into Traverse City,” says Sitkins. “It’s a wonderful opportunity.”

Two educational grants, one for $75,000 and one for $72,000, will provide funding for programs for teachers and students. The first, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), will allow Inland Seas to bring in 30 teachers from Michigan and other Great Lakes states to participate in a four-day professional development opportunity next June. The field course will include daily hands-on, place-based environmental education experiences, time for studying and planning, and lodging at Northwestern Michigan College and on the schooner Inland Seas.

The teachers will also receive ongoing support and resources during the following school year as they implement what they’ve learned in their home areas. As an example, Sitkins cites the Enbridge pipeline rupture, which resulted in crude oil spilling into the Kalamazoo River. Teachers from that area could potentially learn from this field course how to address such calamities in the classroom and in the field.

The second grant is from the Great Lakes Fishery Trust, and will provide what Sitkins calls “playspace education” for area teachers. “We want to get kids in the natural environment,” he says. He says a crumbling mural on the exterior of a gas station in Suttons Bay, which has deteriorated over time, is an example of what would be “a wonderful project … for an art class. We’ll give them (teachers and students) tools.”

Last month, the ISEA unveiled its plans for the Inland Seas Capt. Thomas M. Kelly Biological Station. Inland Seas has $810,000 in pledges for the project. The current facilities at 100 Dame Street in Suttons Bay will be renovated to include dorm space in the lower level of the Education Center and a new building capable of storing and maintaining ship and scientific equipment as well as the boat shop. The upper level of the Education Center will remain an invasive species museum and continue to house the Suttons Bay Visitors Center.

“It’s a huge opportunity for us,” says Sitkins. He says the ambitious five-year project will kick off next spring with construction of the new boat shop, the first domino in the process.