Marine Digest, 9/98
 
Schoolchildren in the Seattle area have followed world trade with an APL container
 
Seattle area schoolchildren are learning a lot more about international trade, thanks to the Port of Seattle’s construction of Global Gateway North for APL. During the past year, hundreds of students have been tracking — via the Internet — a vagabond “Boomerang Box.” An APL container was decorated with paintings created by West Seattle students before the container sailed on an APL ship from Seattle. The 40-foot box, whose artwork depicts Pacific Northwest trade, has traveled by ship to six major Asian ports and by train across the United States while carrying cargo for APL customers. A friendly cartoon version of APL’s eagle logo has filed reports on the Boomerang Box’s own Web page. The reports include maps and a travel log, information on the container’s contents, trade topics and profiles of people who work in international trade.

More than 90,000 “hits” have been recorded on the Boomerang Box Web site — www.apl.com/boomerangbox — since last fall, as students from Seattle to Singapore and from Ecuador to New Zealand have logged on to follow the container. Now, the Boomerang Box is back in Seattle, where it will be displayed at the Sept. 11 dedication of Global Gateway North. The educational project — sponsored by APL, the port and Metropolitan King County Councilmember Greg Nickels — was extended for another school year because it has been such a big hit. During the new school year, the box will ply the Pacific between Seattle and Asia so that more local companies will be able to ship their goods in the container.

Weyerhaeuser Company will be the first to have this honor. Its forest products will be inside the container when it is lifted aboard the APL Philippines following the terminal’s dedication.

As a spinoff of the popular Boomerang Box, the port and APL also are cooperating in another school market. Port and APL personnel appear in classrooms to talk about logistics challenges faced by shippers — such as how to market apples in Taiwan.

This program was launched in Seattle Public Schools and now is being extended to school districts on the east side of Lake Washington.