March 8, 2013 — A commercial fisherman for over 25 years, Dewey Hemilright has been working with Provider Pals, which sends resource professionals into the classroom for students to understand the value behind the items they’ve grown to depend on every day
“We are blessed in North Carolina,” Dewey Hemilright begins his classroom presentation for eighth graders at Manteo Middle School. A commercial fisherman for over 25 years, Hemilright has a passionate message he wants to share.
He is very knowledgeable and is well respected in his industry, serving active roles on the Dare County Working Watermen’s Council, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Dolphin and Wahoo Advisory Council, just to name a few.
For the last seven years he’s been working with Provider Pals, a program that links classroom students with people who get their hands dirty every day, such as farmers, ranchers, miners, loggers, oil field workers, commercial fishermen and others who provide the basics of everyday life. In our largely urbanized culture, it’s become easy to lose track of where our resources come from, especially for students. This is the motivation behind Provider Pals, which sends these resource professionals into the classroom for students to understand the value behind the items they’ve grown to depend on every day. It is eye opening for students (and even adults) to realize their milk does not come from Food Lion and lumber does not come from Home Depot.
Hemilright has traveled all over the country, teaching urban and rural youth about where their seafood comes from. He was born and raised on the Outer Banks and his boats are docked in Wanchese. Hemilright wanted to share his message closer to home and he asked us for help. Our bumper sticker proclaims “No wetlands, no seafood.” It seemed like a perfect fit.
I teamed with Hemilright to allow him to present his message at local schools where the federation has established outreach programs.
Thanks to this successful connection, Hemilright presented his first classroom lessons in North Carolina at Manteo Middle School a couple of weeks ago. Science teacher Mary Ann Hodges excitedly shared, “I learned so much from Captain Dewey today. There are many opportunities for me to be able to integrate examples from his presentation into my classroom lessons that support the standard course of study for eighth-grade science.”
Hemilright polled the students, asking how many enjoyed eating seafood and did they know where it came from? “Without clean water, we wouldn’t have the luxury of having seafood to harvest,” he said while showing an image of the federation’s bumper sticker.
With 25 years of experience fishing the waters off Cape Hatteras, Hemilright has quite the collection of photos that tell a great story of the life of a commercial fisherman. The students were captivated by the pictures, as well as the shark jaws, rubber squid and other fishing gear he brought along to supplement his presentation. He wants the students to understand the multi-faceted process of getting seafood to their dinner tables.
Read the full story from the North Carolina Coastal Federation