We’re still reveling in the excitement of welcoming the Official Tall Ship of the City of Long Beach back to her home dock on Pine Avenue Pier in Long Beach’s Rainbow Harbor at American Pride’s Homecoming Celebration, which was held September 17 – 24, 2026! Thank you to everyone who joined us in sailing full STEAM ahead in Long Beach and celebrating Tall Ship American Pride’s long-awaited homecoming, so we can inspire more youth in Long Beach together!
It’s that time again… City of STEM and the LA Maker Faire’s amazing all-day event that kicks off a month-long STEM celebration on Saturday, April 6, 9:00 am – 6:00 pm, at Los Angeles State Historic Park. Join us at our booth for hands-on science experiments as we analyze local beach sand samples and albatross boluses, which show the impacts of microplastics on the environment.
The Log Spotlights LAMI’s Mission to Educate Youth at Sea Published by The Log When a publication like The Log – a fixture in Southern California’s boating community since 1971 – takes notice of your work, it’s a moment worth celebrating. But beyond the ink and digital pixels, what made us most proud about the…
We’re still reveling in the excitement of welcoming the Official Tall Ship of the City of Long Beach back to her home dock on Pine Avenue Pier in Long Beach’s Rainbow Harbor at American Pride’s Homecoming Celebration, which was held September 13-15, 2024! Thank you to everyone who joined us in sailing full STEAM ahead in Long Beach and celebrating Tall Ship American Pride’s long-awaited homecoming, so we can inspire more youth in Long Beach together!
Thank you to everyone who joined us for this year’s Festival of Sail at LA Fleet Week. It was a wonderful weekend to come together and sail, connect, celebrate and remember all those who served!
Last year, Mia Thompson – a multimedia journalist studying journalism and environmental studies at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism – created a documentary about our organization and the TopSail Youth Program.
We’ve had a few special guests for this spring’s Maritime Youth Leadership Ambassador (MYLA) sessions focused on maritime careers and vocations – both on the boats and off!
Look who made a cameo in this gorgeous shot in the Daily Breeze during SailGP’s first day of racing in the Port of Los Angeles in 2025… it’s Tall Ship American Pride!
You can typically hear our crew saying haul-away aboard the ship, but right now, we’re all about the haul-out with American Pride. Check out photos that were taken by our amazing crew when we began the ship’s maintenance process earlier this month, with a HUGE shout-out to all of the amazing people who are making the haul-out magic possible!
Known as “Captain Mom,” Captain Alice Robinson played a pivotal role in founding LAMI 33 years ago and helping us grow to where we are now. Though she has sailed beyond the horizon, Alice’s influence remains in every program we offer and every young person who discovers their potential aboard our vessels. Join us in honoring her legacy – and making our program possible for more young participants – when you honor and remember Captain Mom with us.
It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Captain Alice Robinson, a cherished member of our LAMI family. As a passionate sail training advocate, Alice played a pivotal role in founding the organization alongside Captain Jim Gladson. Thousands of youth and adults have been impacted by her dedicated efforts over the last 30-plus years, but the lucky ones were those who had the honor of sailing with and learning from “Captain Mom” personally.
We are delighted to share some wonderful news that came out of the 2025 Tall Ships America’s Annual Conference through this message they shared on Facebook. We consider ourselves lucky to benefit from Nancy Richardson’s passion for sail training and education as well, so we applaud this new award name – the Nancy Richardson Volunteer of the Year Award!
A huge thank you to those who joined us in Building G on Sunday, December 8 for the first annual Seaside Social Holiday Party and Fundraiser sponsored by the Sherry Griswold Foundation. Guests were treated to several seaside-themed treats like sushi and a shipwreck casserole, as well as cocktails, mocktails and sweets galore as they mingled with each other and spread holiday cheer – all in support of our educational programs.
We rely on a generous group of government, corporate and foundation partners to make our programs possible for the schools and students who need it most. Leading the way among our corporate partners are our friends at Marathon Petroleum – and we are so grateful! We were honored to be featured in their Community Newsletter this past summer, alongside our partners at EXP and the YMCA. Read the article, “Sea Worthy.”
Learn how many students you helped set sail last year and why we need your help to serve more students in the new year! You’ll also hear from a crew member about a recent voyage with 40 high schoolers and what he witnessed during their shared experience aboard our tall ships, including a “drive, intent, and desire to experience life fully that one rarely senses in teenagers.”
Our Director of Education and crew recently spent three days sailing to Catalina and back for a Crew Training Retreat, where they learned a lot from each other and had a whole lot of fun, as you’ll see in the video accompanying this story!
Over the summer, Tall Ship American Pride became the set for a film shoot on the LA Waterfront as the team from Sphere Media-Global came aboard to shoot part of an episode for the new series Mark McKinney Needs A Hobby. The show airs on CTV, Canada’s most watched network, streams on Crave.
We’re still reveling in the excitement of welcoming the Official Tall Ship of the City of Long Beach back to her home dock on Pine Avenue Pier in Long Beach’s Rainbow Harbor at American Pride’s Homecoming Celebration, which was held September 13-15, 2024! Thank you to everyone who joined us in sailing full STEAM ahead in Long Beach and celebrating Tall Ship American Pride’s long-awaited homecoming, so we can inspire more youth in Long Beach together!
Do have a good story to tell about an experience you (or your child) had with us… something you learned sailing with us… why you love what we do? You can help us grow and provide that experience to more people when you share about your experience on our Great Nonprofits profile!
Did you know you can book our tall ships for private sails? We had so much fun on this one with Blizzard Entertainment aboard both Irving Johnson and Exy Johnson. We love helping people celebrate – not just teams like this, but celebrations with families and friends too! Our ships are also the perfect setting for team building events, since that’s one way we help local youth through our educational programs too.
Long Beach Gives is on Thursday, September 19, 2024. As we inch closer to our sixth year of taking part in this community-wide day of giving in support of 200+ local nonprofits, we’re also getting closer to sailing full STEAM ahead in Long Beach. We hope you’ll join us in these efforts by supporting the Children’s Maritime Institute – early giving begins Thursday, September 12 – and join us in welcoming the official tall ship of the City of Long Beach back to her home dock on Pine Avenue Pier in Rainbow Harbor!
Look who’s getting a little love! We’ve been slowly making progress on Swift of Ipswich, our first tall ship, and we’re excited to share that we took her over for a haul-out. Our Deckhand Emily made a video at the start of the week, and as you can see, everyone was very excited – especially Captain Bruce, who drove her for the first time since we installed a new engine!
You may remember learning about Ella when we shared her story this past spring as part of our 32nd anniversary celebration, and the Eagle Scout project she was completing in collaboration with our team – a training sail for us to use in Building G! We were honored and delighted to join with her family and fellow scouts this summer to celebrate her rank as Eagle Scout, with the training sail she created was prominently displayed.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for this year’s Festival of Sail at LA Fleet Week. It was a wonderful weekend to come together and sail, connect, celebrate and remember all those who served!
We were proud to help provide a welcome escort for Amerigo Vespucci, the historic and iconic training ship of the Italian Navy, as it entered the San Pedro Harbor on Tuesday, July 2. There were so many great photos and videos shared on social media, and many of them featured Exy Johnson sailing close by!
Our Executive Director Bruce Heyman passed the gavel to West Harbor’s Lauren Johnson as Chair of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce at the annual Business Awards. We were proud to join with the amazing San Pedro community to celebrate the past year, as well as all the businesses, nonprofits and community members who were honored with this year’s awards.
Shortly after we wrapped up the 2024 Festival of Sail, we joined our friends and education partners AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles for the Grand Opening of their Center of Innovation, a 35-acre campus right here in the Port of Los Angeles. It was a wonderful morning filled with celebration of this amazing accomplishment!
The Harbor Association of Industry and Commerce (HAIC) hosted two engaging and informative Port-related discussions at the Battleship Iowa in the spring of 2024. They covered topics such as the clean ports initiatives, the green shipping corridor, foreign relations, how the pandemic improved the visibility of the ports, workforce development, advocacy and education, and their efforts to meet the zero emissions goal by 2030.
We asked former camper and current deckhand Ella Momeny – who we featured in our 32nd anniversary campaign – to share about her Summer Camp experience. In this video, she talks about the nervousness she felt going into her first week away at Summer Camp, and how that quickly dissipated when she met her new friends and crew mates.
If you don’t live in San Pedro and you aren’t on social media, you may not have seen who’s featured on the cover of San Pedro Today’s May 2024 issue… yes, that’s Captain Bruce Heyman and one of our brigantines. We are thrilled and grateful to be the cover story for the local magazine’s latest issue!
When a generous group of local artists and photographers asked if they could host a month-long art show benefitting our educational programs, little did we know it would turn into such a beautiful celebration of community and connection in San Pedro and on the LA Waterfront! More than a dozen community members donated items for Art and Photos for a Cause.
When Captain Jim Gladson and his circle of advocates founded our organization on March 27, 1992, they hoped to inspire the young participants to pursue a maritime or STEM-based career. Now, 32 years later, we can say that we have done that many times over, and we are proud to share the latest example. Meet Ella Momeny.
Today’s the day… LAMI was officially founded 32 years ago TODAY – March 27, 1992! Join us in celebrating on social media by sharing a favorite memory or how we’ve had an impact on you in the comments of our anniversary post on social media or on our Great Nonprofits profile.
You may have noticed a familiar face around LAMI… Jacob Strong has returned to the team, this time at the helm of Building G as our Maintenance Manager! In his new role, he oversees boat repairs and our maintenance crew, which puts his background as a deckhand and Captain with us to good use.
We are incredibly grateful to a generous group of local artists and photographers who are hosting a month-long art show benefitting our educational programs – Art and Photos for a Cause! The Opening and Closing Receptions will take place on the First Thursdays in April and May, and you can also visit the exhibit on Saturday afternoons in between. It’s all happening at fINdings Art Center.
It’s that time again… City of STEM and the LA Maker Faire’s amazing all-day event that kicks off a month-long STEM celebration on Saturday, April 6, 9:00 am – 6:00 pm, at Los Angeles State Historic Park. Join us at our booth for hands-on science experiments as we analyze local beach sand samples and albatross boluses, which show the impacts of microplastics on the environment.
Our very own Nancy Richardson shared “a wide-world-made-small by sailing, ships and the sea” over zoom as part of the Sea Stories series, presented by the American Schooner Association and Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race. In the webinar, she traces her life and contributions from Antarctica to the Arctic pursuing “Adventure and Education Under Sail.”
Instead of welcoming students on a field trip, our crew recently took a field trip of their own – to visit our friends at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium! Irene Kurata from the Aquarium team and Marla Corey, who is a longtime volunteer for both the Aquarium and LAMI, took us on an exciting and educational tour of their exhibits.
Calling all artistic K-12 students who are lovers of the ocean, the maritime community and its history, environmental stewardship and sustainability: The North American Marine Environment Protection Association (NAMEPA) is accepting submissions for their 15th Annual Art Contest!
In January, the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association (PMSA) and Port of Los Angeles presented the 2024 State of the Port event, and it was an inspiring afternoon on the LA Waterfront. Opportunity was a key theme, as were the organizations and people involved, many of whom we are proud to have as partners.
Check out a wonderful new video about LAMI that was created earlier this year as part of Lee Williams’ Faces & Places series for LA Move, in collaboration with Koven Video Productions. Lee Williams is also a Commissioner on the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners, and you can read the poignant remarks he shared at a recent Harbor Commission Meeting.
Members of our community came together on Saturday, December 9, 2023 for our annual party celebrating the holidays, our volunteers and the Swift of Ipswich’s birthday. December 9 was also a beautiful day to celebrate the San Pedro Waterfront Arts District’s collaborative project that led to the mural on the side of historic Building G!
We’re celebrating our fearless leader, Captain Bruce Heyman, as he marks 10 years at the helm of LAMI as of December 2023! One of our community partners, Olga Chavez of Marathon Petroleum Corporation, joined us in celebrating Bruce’s incredible 10-year journey. There’s so much to say about him, but we’re simply going to let his words speak for themself.
A lot has changed in the 31 years since the Los Angeles Maritime Institute was founded, and I am proud to share that in our 30th year, we got closer to providing this immersive experience to the numbers of youth we served pre-pandemic.
We’re a top-rated nonprofit because of you! The certificate says, “Your organization has achieved Top-Rated status for 2023 from your community on GreatNonprofits,” and they’re exactly right. You – our amazing community – made this happen, and we are so grateful.
We’ve had a great summer here at LAMI, and I wanted to share a few stories with you that show how we’ve fulfilled our mission of “empowering youth to discover their greatest potential through extraordinary at-sea experiences aboard educational sailing vessels.”