Daily Shipping News, 6/7/99
 
SEATTLE — After following the brightly painted Boomerang Box on its travels to a dozen major Asian ports for the past two years, 30 students from West Seattle High School said goodbye to their favorite cargo container at the Odyssey Maritime Discovery Center.

The 40-foot box, which depicts students’ images of Pacific Northwest trade, is part of an educational project sponsored by the Port of Seattle and APL Ltd, a global transportation company, to help students learn about international trade. Its globe-trotting adventures have been tracked by students all over the world on the World Wide Web (www.apl.com/boomerangbox).

Beginning in September, the Boomerang Box will resume its worldwide adventures via APL’s container terminal in Oakland, Calif. The project is being expanded so that more students up and down the U.S. West Coast can become actively involved and so that the Boomerang Box can reach even more destinations around the globe, including points in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and beyond.

Since October 1997, the Boomerang Box has traveled by container ship all over Asia and by train from Seattle to the East Coast, carrying cargo for APL customers. In February, the Boomerang Box carried building components for the Song Mei pavilion, the first structure for the Seattle Chinese Garden that will be built north of South Seattle Community College.

On its latest trip, the Boomerang Box returned home on May 23 with engine struts and other heavy components for The Boeing Co.’s new 777 jetliner. Some of the students at the sendoff celebration got to meet Boeing engine mechanic David Robinson, whose job they profiled as they studied how jet airplanes are designed and manufactured with parts from around the world.

Mic Dinsmore, executive director of the Port of Seattle, said the Port, APL and its customers are as excited about the Boomerang Box’s adventures as the students who have now been exposed to crucial aspect of the trade-dependent community they live in.

“The Boomerang Box has given us a way to share our world with the students,” Dinsmore said. “The project has been a tremendous success.”

Stan Morgan, account manager for APL in Seattle, said the project gave APL customers like Boeing an opportunity to participate in an innovative educational project simply by shipping their products in the Boomerang Box.

“We’re looking forward to the chance to continue the Boomerang Box project from Oakland,” Morgan said. “I know that many Seattle students will continue to follow the Boomerang Box over the Internet.”

As the celebration concluded, Mr. Dinsmore and other port officials unveiled a new Boomerang Box exhibit at the Odyssey Maritime Dlscovery Center.

The exhibit, a brightly painted replica of the Boomerang Box, will help alert teachers and students to the project and guide them to its classroom resources on the Web site.