Background on sitesALIVE! The concept for sitesALIVE!—interactive learning programs created around live adventures—was born at sea. In 1988, founder and president Rich Wilson was chasing a transatlantic speed record on a 3,000-mile solo sailing passage from England to Rhode Island. Racing a trimaran alone across the ocean is a grueling existence, and Wilson reported his adventures in a series of live interviews by radiotelephone with a Boston radio station. The response was overwhelming. While listeners followed an ocean adventurer whose plight was playing out in real time, they became hooked on the drama of Wilson's story. It was then that the idea for sitesALIVE! was hatched. Rich Wilson, a lifelong educator, wondered if he could do the same with children. If he could capture the imagination of kids with the excitement of a live oceangoing adventure, he could use that voyage as an opportunity to teach the many subjects and disciplines related to offshore sailing: math, nutrition, science, weather forecasting, perseverance, astronomy, goal setting, and more. In 1990, Wilson acquired a 60' trimaran he named Great American. He picked a route that was long enough to allow him to bring in many subjects and disciplines, dramatic enough to arouse media attention, and uncertain enough to keep the outcome in doubt. Wilson and coskipper Steve Pettengill set sail from San Francisco and headed to Boston, via Cape Horn, to chase the sailing record set during the California Gold Rush by the clippership Northern Light. They took school children along by creating a curriculum and teacher's manual, writing a newsletter, and making a daily telephone recording from the boat. Wilson and Pettengill never made it to Boston. They capsized in storm conditions before rounding the Horn and were saved by a containership in a daring nighttime rescue in mountainous seas. But the enthusiasm of kids prompted Wilson to try the trip again. Wilson founded Boston-based Ocean Challenge, Inc. in 1991. By 1993, he had raised the money to buy another boat, Great American II, and he and coskipper Bill Biewenga set sail from San Francisco. This time, Wilson published an 11-part chronicle in several major newspapers and persuaded Prodigy to produce the first interactive learning adventure. Wilson and Biewenga arrived in Boston 69 days and 20 hours later and broke Northern Light's record. Over 300,000 children followed their adventure, a thousand of which came to Boston to witness their arrival. The concept was proven. In 1993, sitesALIVE! programs were started to pioneer live learning adventures for students K-12. As technology has developed, so has the potential for the learning model that Wilson created. Today, sitesALIVE! maintains a Web site at www.sitesalive.com; participates in the Newspaper in Education program; and has forged a partnership with the AOL@SCHOOL program. In 2001, Wilson and Biewenga toppled another record pace by sailing from New York to Melbourne (Australia) to break the record set in 1856 by the tall ship Mandarin during the Australian Gold Rush. In 2003, Wilson and coskipper Rich du Moulin will chase the 1849 record of the clipper ship Sea Witch, retracing her 15,000-mile route from Hong Kong to New York. In addition to Wilson's sailing adventures, learning programs have been developed around sailing teams competing in events such as the Whitbread Round-the-World Race and the America's Cup. Today sitesALIVE! partners with field schools, and students in classrooms and home schooling can connect with their student peers who are engaged in adventures and expeditions worldwide. sitesALIVE! has produced some 65 full semester interactive online programs since its founding in 1993. When Great American II sets sail from Hong Kong in March 2003, classrooms, families, and homeschooling educators will be able to purchase licenses to access the daily reports and logs posted online from onboard the boat. A teacher's manual and curriculum--designed with lessons for K-12 and timed to be taught during the voyage--has been developed. Some 250,000 students will follow the adventure from weekly reports published in eight major newspapers, in the Newspaper in Education supplements. The AOL@SCHOOL program will open the world of real-time ocean voyaging to some 12,000 schools nationwide. sitesALIVE!® is a registered trademark of Ocean Challenge, Inc. For information on sitesALIVE! programs, contact: Ocean Challenge, Inc. 225 Friend Street, 5th Floor Boston, MA 02114 Phone: + 1 (617) 248-9777 Fax: +1 (617) 248-9778 Cell: +1 (617) 513-2439 Email: info@sitesalive.com Web site: www.sitesalive.com