BIDDEFORD — Representatives from Habitat for Humanity York County and Engine’s Compass Project attended the weekly Monday morning school assembly at Biddeford Middle School to acknowledge the Proactive Education Program students for their collaborative efforts to build stronger communities on Oct. 15.

Last spring, students from the Biddeford Middle School Proactive Education Program participating in the Engine Compass Project boatbuilding program completed a Compass Skiff that was raffled off Memorial Day weekend.  The raffle fundraiser was done as a partnership between the BMS students, Compass Project, and Habitat for Humanity York County in celebration of the Kennebunk ReStore’s fifth anniversary.

The raffle was won by a family from Wells.

Every piece of the boat was built from scratch by the BMS students in the Compass Project boat shop housed in Biddeford High School.  The boat seats were made from a giant oak that fell in Kennebunk and was milled into lumber by a Wells resident who had donated the lumber for the raffle boat in honor of the kids’ great accomplishment and to preserve part of the beautiful neighborhood tree.

Founded in 2002, Compass Project has been serving at-risk youth in Maine for more than 15 years.  Through project-based learning and mentoring relationships fostered by staff and volunteers, students build academic skills, develop self-esteem and confidence, and prepare themselves for a role in the workplace and their communities.

The Compass Project is a program of Biddeford-based Engine, Inc.

Habitat for Humanity partners with people locally and worldwide to help them build or improve the place they call home.