Earlier this year, Partners Bank had the opportunity to support Sanborn Regional High School’s submarine team, the Sanborn Submariners, in their endeavor to compete in the 2023 International Submarine Races in Bethesda, Maryland, which take place this coming week, from June 18-23. The bank sponsored the team with a $750 donation at the start of the year and has enjoyed following along with their journey in the months since. Shannon Lavalley, Partners Bank Market Manager in the Kingston branch, first visited with the team in January and remarked at the time, “it’s super rewarding being involved with this!”

The team of eight high school students and their teacher, Mr. Jim Enright, embarked on this journey in 2022. After successfully pitching the program to the Sanborn Schoolboard in June of that year with unanimous approval, the group first met the following September. The engineering-based STEM program has involved elements of buoyancy, math calculations, Computer Aided Design (CAD), drag coefficients, as well as other elements. Academically, the program requires that each student be certified in Scuba diving and submit a research paper as well as meet the team’s objective to compete in the biennial International Submarine Races alongside two dozen other high schools and colleges.

To be in the race, teams are required to design and build a human-powered submarine that runs for 100 meters, or approximately 40 seconds. The model the Sanborn team used as a base model was built a decade ago, in the 2012-2013 school year by Seacoast School of Technology students, and was raced in 2013, but required vast updates and repairs before launching into another race. The students and Enright have worked diligently to prepare for the upcoming competition and have received helping hands from students in Welding and Digital Media Publishing programs. “I’m incredibly proud of the team as well as their peers that have rallied around them to help them prepare,” Enright shares.

Five months after first meeting with the Sanborn Submariners, Lavalley maintains that her involvement with the team has been a rewarding experience. “To see all that they have accomplished has been incredible,” she remarks on her experience of witnessing the team’s progress. Partners Bank President and CEO, Blaine Boudreau, concurs: “It’s amazing to see all that they have done. No doubt, programs like these are great opportunities for students, but they’re also great for the future of our workforce—we’re honored to sponsor this program and are very proud of these students.”

Partners Bank wishes the Sanborn Submariners the best of luck at the 2023 International Submarine Races! For more information on the team and to follow the remainder of their voyage, visit sanbornmedia.org/submariners.