Osseo Education Center Helps Students Set Sail
Scholars from the Osseo Education Center arrived at the Wayzata Yacht Club on a sunny May 23 morning with plans for a boat ride.
The weather was perfectly suited to their visit.
“Oh it’s beautiful, it’s light wind, perfect for beginner sailors, enough to make the boat move,” said Angie O’Leary, a teacher at Osseo Education Center.
She’s also a member at Wayzata Yacht Club, and she helped to organize the visit.
She brought a group of students that hasn’t spent a lot of time on watercraft.
“I would say at least half of them, this was there first time on the water,” she said. “And the majority of them, their first time on a sail boat.”
Along with Osseo Area School District staff, the nonprofit Wayzata Sailing was on-site to help teach the scholars.
They spent about 20 minutes out on a sailboat, where they learned to raise the sails and steer.
O’Leary said it’s an important life experience for these scholars.
Osseo Education Center students learned how to operate sails and steer a boat on May 23.
Osseo Education Center Teaches Life Skills
The Osseo Education Center offers learning opportunities for students age 17-22 that received special education services and want to expand their independent living skills.
“They work on three areas of transition: life skills, employment and functional academics,” O’Leary said.
And this week, they added sailing to that list of skills.
“It’s an opportunity that many of them don’t have outside of school,” O’Leary said. “So the more that we can get them involved with sailing, and canoeing and other on the water, outdoor activities, the better for them.”
What they’ve learned could keep them on the water for the rest of their lives.
“I hope they come back,” O’Leary said.
