PORT TOWNSEND — Students in Scott Lundh’s Blue Heron Middle School fourth-grade class will be celebrating today.
They suggested the winning ferry classification name for the new 64-car vessel scheduled to ply the Port Townsend-Keystone route late this summer.
The name — Kwa-di Tabil class, pronounced kwah DEE tah-bale — means “little boat” in the Quileute language.
Lundh said Saturday that he will be recognizing his students today for research that helped produce the winner.
Gregoire’s idea
The teacher said one student in particular brought the name forward — Rose Dunlap.
“It’s pretty overwhelming,” a happy Lundh said, adding he has only had time to notify Rose about her winning name.
“Actually, just to think that the governor’s going to be in the classroom . . . we better clean,” Lundh joked about the governor’s planned visit in the spring.
It was Gov. Chris Gregoire who came up with the idea for the naming contest last year when she and members of the news media toured the work site of the new Port Townsend ferry at Todd Pacific Shipyards in Seattle.
That’s where the ferry, recently named the Chetzemoka, is under construction and the second one will also be built.
The Chetzemoka was named for the Klallam tribal chief after a big push by the Jefferson County Historical Society that was supported by the Blyn-based Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Council and Les Prince, a direct descendant of Chetzemoka.
Plaque presentation
The second ferry for the Port Townsend-Keystone run may be called Squi qui, named for a Swinomish tribal leader, pending approval by the state Transportation Commission. That name is being lobbied by Whidbey Island history buffs.
Gregoire promised to visit Blue Heron’s winning classroom, probably in the spring.
She will present the 20 students with a plaque commemorating the selection.
A panel of four local and state officials plus Gregoire’s husband selected the winning entry.
The panel, in addition to Mike Gregoire, included state Department of Transportation Chief of Staff Steve Reinmuth, Coupeville Mayor Nancy Conard, Port Townsend Mayor Michelle Sandoval and Washington State Ferries port captain Bill Michael.
Washington State Ferries conducted the contest to name the new vessel classification among fourth-grade students from Chimacum, Port Townsend and Whidbey Island as part of their state history curriculum.
Contest rules
The name had to be unique to Washington state, representative of the local community, have symbolic maritime meaning and be reflective of nature.
Port Townsend School District Superintendent Tom Opstad called the contest a great learning experience.
“I just think the teachers and the students enjoyed the process and learned a little bit about the ferries,” he said. “It was just a good tie in with the area.”
Lundh taught for four years at the former Mountain View Elementary School before he and his students moved to Blue Heron when Mountain View was closed.
The shutdown occurred when the Port Townsend School Board imposed cost-cutting measures in answer to declining enrollment and shrinking district revenues.
Uplifting news
“This is something good after compromising and coming to this place and going out to the portables [classroom buildings],” Lundh said.
His students “had to deal with a lot, and to have something like this happen is just incredible,” he added.
After throwing around ideas, Lundh said his students looked at fish species for names but soon learned salmon were not unique to the Northwest.
“They quickly learned to judge whether it fit the criteria or didn’t fit the criteria,” he said.
The class was split into four groups and pared down the list to a final name, an assignment that took more than a week.
The students came up with about 15 names before coming up with the winner.
“Besides it being somewhat hard to pronounce, it fit because it was an unusual word,” Lundh said.
“But when you look at the word, it’s pretty much pronounced as it is spelled.”
He said he was surprised that Kwa-di Tabil won, and he expects the students are surprised as well.
“When those kids are my age, these boats are still going to be around,” he said.
State Ferries vessels are categorized into different classifications or vessel classes.
For example, the three largest ferries — Puyallup, Tacoma and Wenatchee — make up the Jumbo Mark II class.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
