Below a hill in Hunts Point, the Bronx River glistens, offering an escape from the city. Herons and egrets glide above the water and the air is fresh. A 20-foot sailboat slices through the calm flow of the river. But this sailboat was made by kids.

Rocking the Boat is a Bronx-based nonprofit that empowers local youth through teaching them to build and sail wooden boats. On Friday, the organization received enough wood to build five more boats from the deinstallation of a Manhattan art installation.

Ghost Forest, the public art installation by Maya Lin that illuminated the effects of climate change on the world’s forests, was uninstalled from Madison Square Park on Nov. 19 after six months of display. The lumber was milled on site by Tri-Lox, a Brooklyn-based, sustainability-focused millworks and workshop. The 49 50-foot-tall Atlantic white cedar trees will no longer stand in the park’s Oval Lawn but will glide through the waters of the Bronx River. Because Rocking the Boat builds their boats out of solid wood and not plywood, finding the right materials can be difficult.

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