Before stepping into the role of executive director almost 10 years ago now, Stockton Reece was pursuing and exploring the passions of his that would eventually lead him to find a home here at Community Boat Building. Reece grew up sailing wooden boats, specifically beetle cats, on Cape Cod. Throughout his years of education in business, Reece never forgot his passion for being on the water, and working in and around boats. He completed his bachelor’s degree in English at Colgate University in Upstate New York, and went on to pursue a master’s degree in Business Management at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Reece knew he wanted to dive into the business of non-profit work and education, because he strongly believes it is “the key to how we close the income gap and socio-economic issues going on around the world right now,” says Reece. When he was first introduced to a job-listing for Community Boat Building by a friend, he realized this would be the place where all of his skills and passions could collide: teaching underserved kids valuable skills, building boats, and managing organizations.
What particularly intrigued Stockton Reece about Community Boat Building was the way it was “breaking ground in problem based learning”, says Reece. When he joined Community Boat Building in 2015, John Rowse, founder of Community Boat Building and former executive director, was doing something that not many other organizations were doing: taking on an ambitious and exciting project to teach kids core concepts in math, engineering, social, and emotional learning. At this time, Rowse was preparing to step down from his position. He wanted to focus on the educational side of the business, rather than a directing role. He worked closely with Reece and provided him with the guidance and preparation needed to step into the leadership role of executive director.
Since taking on the role of executive director, Stockton Reece has furthered Rowse’s legacy to serve students and families through structured values, educational sessions, and experiences, as well as a passion for boat building and sailing that he passes on to the community. One of Reece’s biggest goals within his leadership role in the coming years is to maintain excellence in delivering programming while also finding ways to expand and reach more kids. He recognizes that there can be challenges in scaling up, and he hopes to push through those barriers. Reece says that witnessing students launch their boats on launch days is one of the most rewarding aspects of the experience at Community Boat Building; getting to see their faces light up with satisfaction, confidence, and excitement shows the value derived from the experience kids have here.
“I've always felt very privileged to have had these boat based experiences growing up, and I saw an organization bringing those kinds of deeply core experiences to kids who couldn't access that on their own… the sailing and boating world is bathed in wealth and opportunity, and you have the kids in public schools missing out on that, so merging the two had a lot of benefit for these kids,” says Reece.
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