Flat Stanley Finds a Sweet Ride

Season 4 of the Educational Passages Podcast continues with our “Imagine This” series — where the stories behind our miniboats reveal something even deeper than ocean currents and GPS tracks.

Each episode invites you to step into a moment of possibility — to feel the anticipation, the uncertainty, and the extraordinary connections that unfold when students send something small into a very big ocean.

Now press play, close your eyes, and imagine this:

A classroom on Peaks Island, Maine builds a miniboat called P.I.E. on the Tide and fills its cargo hold with dozens of Flat Stanleys — tiny paper travelers ready for adventure. The boat sails into a quiet cove in Newfoundland, where it’s discovered by a crew working on the water and eventually delivered to a nearby school. What happens next is a coincidence so perfect it feels almost scripted. In Flat Stanley Finds a Sweet Ride, we share the story of how a simple classroom tradition, a student-built boat, and a little help from the ocean came together to create one very sweet connection across the sea.

Read more and see what happens next; https://educationalpassages.org/boats/pieonthetide/

Transcript

Welcome And The New Series

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Welcome to the Educational Passages Podcast. Educational Passages is a nonprofit organization that seeks to connect people around the world to the ocean and each other through unique global experiences. I'm your host, Cassie Stymist. Welcome everybody to Season 4. Get ready to set sail on a brand new adventure as we launch our Imagine This series, where the magic of mini boats come alive through the voices and visions of those who make it all possible. In this series, each episode will paint a vivid picture of discovery, connection, and curiosity, not just tracking the voyages, but exploring the challenges and unexpected outcomes behind them. Now press play, close your eyes, and imagine this. Imagine sailing across the ocean inside a six-foot-long boat, as a piece of paper, inside the cargo hold of a mini boat. You're flat, as flat as pie crust when you roll it out, which is convenient because sometimes being flat means you can travel places most people can't. Inside envelopes, inside backpacks, and in this case inside a mini boat named Pie on the Tide. You're flat Stanley. Students know you, they write about you, you come to life when they make versions of you, a piece of paper with a body outline that becomes a version a little more like themselves that travel the world. Maybe you made one when you were in school, a paper version of a character from a children's book sent out into the world to travel and report back on what we find and see. Flat Stanleys visit grandparents, they visit cousins. Sometimes they go somewhere far away, a national park, a big city, maybe even another country. And sometimes somewhere closer, a family camp, a trip to the beach. The first time I heard about Flat Stanley, it wasn't from a classroom, it was from my nephew. He had a school project, make a flat Stanley and send him somewhere interesting. During the summer of 2024, he told me I'd be one of the first family members to receive it, and he asked me to take it somewhere cool. Well, I just so happened to be traveling to Alaska that September to a workshop with educators interested in building a mini boat. So I brought my nephew's Flat Stanley with me, of course. We went to the workshop and Stanley fit perfectly on the mini boat for some photo ops. We learned all about wildlife in the area, explored the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies, went to the beach and dipped our toes in the cold water. I laminated Stanley first so he stayed dry. Along the way we saw mountains, glaciers, rainbows, moose, and beluogas. But what I did not know at the time was that this flat Stanley's adventure was about to connect to another. Not long after that Alaskan adventure, another mini boat story was just beginning. This one on Peaks Island in Maine. I delivered their kit to the school in February 2025. It was a blank canvas. The students put the boat together. They had a local illustrator stop by the school to help with decorations and content for the cargo hold. But it was a very special illustrator, actually. Turns out, Scott Nash. Scott is the illustrator of Flat Stanley himself. Ever since 2003, Scott has been bringing Flat Stanley to classrooms and homes around the world with the Flat Stanley Children's Book Series. Imagine that. A year before this, I had no idea what Flat Stanley was. Then I bring my nephew's Flat Stanley to Alaska and suddenly I'm connected with the illustrator of Flat Stanley himself. Months later I returned to the school for science night and for a maritime send-off celebration for the mini boat. There it was on display, the sail decorated with a pie and a sail on top, as if the boat itself were a pie. This is because they named their boat the pie on the tide. Pie standing for Peaks Island Elementary. Students and families gathered around it, pointing at drawings, reading letters, imagining where their mini boat will take them. But the thing that caught my eye the most? Flat Stanleys. Dozens of them, different colors, different outfits, different personalities, each one representing a student or a teacher. Later, they were all placed in the cargo hold, one by one. They were placed alongside the GPS tracker that would tell us where the boat would go. Little pieces of themselves tucked safely away to travel across the sea. And then the hatch was closed, sealed with silicone to try and keep the water out. The boat was launched far offshore from the coast of Maine by the crew of the FV Rachel Leah, thanks to the Little Bay Lobster Company. And then all the flat Stanleys were on the move. The ocean is a strange place when you're a piece of paper riding inside a boat. You can't see the waves, but you can feel the rhythm. The wind pushes, the currents pull, and somewhere above satellites track the boat as it moves. All the while students back in Maine watched the little dot move across the map, wondering, predicting hoping. The boat had crossed Georgia's Basin, across the Northeast Channel, and within just a few miles of landing in Nova Scotia. But she kept going. She made a few loop de loops on the northwest corner of Sable Island Bank and then almost landed in Cape Breton Island, but she kept going. Across the Laurentian Channel and to the south coast of Newfoundland. After only twenty seven days at sea, the journey comes to an end. Not with a storm, not with a crash, thank goodness, but with the quiet arrival in a small little cove. And not an empty cove. This cove already had a boat in it, the 360 North. Aboard it was Barge Captain Travis Poole. Travis and his team, Terry, Steve, and James as well, were at North Bob Lock Farm at Moi Canada East. Mowie is the world's largest salmon farming company. The mini boat sailed right up to them while they were working. For nearly a month, the students had been watching the map, wondering where their boat would go, wondering who might find it. And then one afternoon, in a small cove in Newfoundland, someone finally did. They took it aboard and Travis called the number on the deck. I answered, but here's the strangest part. The call didn't come just at any time. It came during my annual summer road trip to our family camp. And who was in the car with me? The same nephew who had once sent me his flat Stanley to bring to Alaska. Almost as if the universe remembered he was a part of the story. The 360 North crew relaunched the boat a few days later. They waited for good weather and relaunched the boat on July 26th. For an hour or so it headed south, perfect. But then it quickly turned and went northeast. Back towards the coast, and after exactly 24 more hours at sea on this second voyage, the mini boat found another cove, North Cove, and this time it landed on the rocks. But only for a little while until the tide came up and pushed her back out. She traveled up North Bay into Little Dotting Cove after a four-hour voyage, but this time she stayed. But she was in a spot that no one would ever find her, so I knew we had to do some outreach. I reached out to Brittany J. Brittany is a fishery officer with the Department of Fisheries in Oceans Canada. Brittany and colleagues recovered the BHS rowboat back in 2021 and helped bring the HK Pride and Teal Turtle, which arrived soon after Rowboat, to schools in the area. Those are all stories for another day. Brittany replied almost immediately, saying it was an easy retrieval and they would head out the next day. Sure enough, the next day we got an email that said another successful retrieval. After getting the emails last night, I was able to get together a crew to embark on the retrieval of the pie on the tide. The crew consisted of Britney and River Guardians Travis, Mark, Jacob, and Zachary. The email continued We departed Milltown, Newfoundland at 0930, where we sailed out towards Little Dove Cove. It was foggy, but the seas conditions were fair, offering us good sailing. At 1024, we spotted the pie on the tide, nestled in the rocks in the back of the cove, at the base of a very steep embankment. It was perfectly placed, just waiting for us. By 1035 we had the mini boat aboard and we were all safely back in the outboat as well. We sailed back to Milltown with the mini boat safely tucked away and secured with the pilot whales even making an appearance for us. But my favorite part of this email was this. I can ensure you that each of us found joy in today's activity. Getting to connect with the students and teachers behind our previous boat rescues is something I cherish. Brittany and crew later brought the mini boat to St. Joseph's Elementary School in Harbor Breton, where students were eager to receive it. They had absolutely no idea what was inside it waiting for them. The boat remained sealed while some logistics were sorted out. I met with the teachers and we talked about next steps. Everyone was so excited to connect classrooms. The teacher in Newfoundland shared an idea she had been thinking about the Flat Stanley Project. I looked at Bridget on the Zoom, the lead teacher from Maine, and said, Do you want to tell her or should I? She had absolutely no idea that sitting inside the cargo hold of that boat that came all the way for Maine had all the Flat Stanleys inside. Or that the illustrator of Flat Stanley himself came from the very same place as the mini boat. Apparently that teacher had been planning to do the Flat Stanley project long before the boat even arrived. None of this had been planned that way. The goal for the Peaks Island community was simply to build a boat and see where it would go. But the story wrote itself, and that's the thing about mini boats. You can build the boat, you can design it, you can plan the launch, you can even predict the movement, but you can't plan the connections. Those happen on their own. Sometimes those connections stretch from one island classroom to another, from Maine to Newfoundland, and sometimes they carry a whole boatful of flat Stanleys along the way. And when a story comes together like that, well, that's pretty sweet. Sweet as pie. Pie on the tide. If you enjoyed the story and want to help send more adventures like this across the ocean, consider supporting Educational Passages. Because somewhere out there right now, another mini boat is out there. And inside it, there might just be another flat Stanley, another student's flat self, waiting for the next connection. You have been listening to the Educational Passages Podcast. Educational Passages is a nonprofit organization. Please consider making a donation to help us continue our work bringing people together to learn more about the ocean. To donate, head over to educationalpassages.org slash support. If you're enjoying this program, please consider subscribing to the podcast in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or from wherever you download your podcasts. Thanks for listening to the colour.