First Female Quartermaster Sails Towards Success

Marchela Corolla lives next to Lighthouse Point Park and loves the water.

That lifetime love, and a lot of hard work, have earned the 18-year-old the title of Quartermaster. She’s the first female in New Haven County ever to earn the title.

She did it through a series of projects she took on the past three years through the Sea Scouts program, including building a new T‑ball and ​“coach-pitch” field for the Little League field on Woodward Avenue.

“I grew up on the water. My dad would take my brother, Anthony, and I out on motor boats,” said Corolla, who graduated this spring from Sound School. ​“I was always fascinated with seeing the oil tankers and tug boats coming in and out of the harbor.”

Corolla joined Sea Scouts three and a half years ago. She described the organization as Boy Scouts with ships: They take on seamanship, practical deck, maritime skills, and other basic leadership skills.

Her father, Dave, who was an Eagle Scout when he was younger, encouraged her to join. She started off as a shipmate and in three years earned top rank as a Quartermaster for Ship 1.

“I was really shy. and I didn’t really want to join,” Corolla said. ​“Three months after I joined, I went to my first leadership training of that year. My whole world changed. I was like, ​‘This is awesome. I want to continue doing this.’”

Corolla started off as an apprentice and learned about the basics of safety on the water: life jackets, small motorboats, sailing. Supporting fellow shipmates is what led her into the second rank as the bosun. She picked up on how to do chart navigation using dividers and triangles. Able, which is the third rank, is sailing and planning cruises. She cooked on water and learned how to communicate with the Coast Guard through VHF in case of emergencies. She obtained navigation at night skills and learned what to do if the boat gets stuck or emergencies like man overboard.

“Probably the coolest thing about Sea Scouts is being an Able,” Corolla said. ​“You have to earn a long cruise badge, and it’s two weeks of continuous water cruising. I took two weeks on the schooner Amistad. Amistad has such a special place in my heart. I was pretty much training as a deckhands.”

Corolla earned the rank of Able by completing a service project while applying to colleges and playing left winger in ice hockey and a catcher in softball.

“My schedule was a little hectic,” Corolla said, humbly, with her uniform covered in dozens of badges illustrating her success.

For her service project to earn the position of Quartermaster, Corolla wanted to combine her interests of Sea Scouts with her 13 years in softball. She grew up playing in the Annex YMA Little League on Woodward Avenue. She turned to State Rep. Al Paolillo, a coach and board member in the league, for advice on how to give back to the community that she grew up in.

“And he was like, ​‘Well remember that field that you guys used to play in?’ and that’s when I had an aha! moment. That’s the best idea.”

Paolillo recalled Corolla approaching the league and asking, ​“What can I do to benefit the kids like you helped me?”

“She spearheaded this project. She was fabulous,” Paolillo said ​“We’ve watched her grow up. She is definitely someone we’re proud of.”

Corolla then asked Annex Little League President Rob Vallombroso for additional support while also asking the acting parks chief William Carone for permission to work on city property. She presented her plan to the scouts, recruited peers, then worked alongside parks and league members on the new field.

“I worked with the three of them in planning the design and actually getting it out. I’ve played softball for 13 years, and I didn’t realize actually how much went into building a brand new field. You’ve got to do so much,” Corolla said. ​“You’ve got to dig down, measure it out, and I was really grateful that all the three of them encouraged me to go with the design that worked best for me. I got to be creative and actually picked out what it looked like.”

Corolla and her shipmates fundraised for the project. They shook a can outside Dunkin Donuts to earn money. Raffle baskets were held at Sound School’s recruitment events. Altogether, she raised around $3,000.

She started the project in March 2019. The new field was finished in January 2020.

She recalls it was the coldest day in November that the new and improved field was created along with her destiny in receiving top rank as Quartermaster.

“Every second that I wasn’t doing something I was focusing on this project,” Corolla said. ​“I was planning everything, writing everything, and researching what the best field design would be because the field is on a marsh. I didn’t want to build just a field. I actually built two dugout benches for each side.”

“My husband and I are so proud of her,” said her mother Sonia. ​“To accomplish all of this at the age she is, it amazes me. She puts her mind to something and she doesn’t stop,” Sonia said.

Corolla’s grandmother Ann reflected on her accomplishment of building the little league field.

“When she was working on the fields, it had to be the coldest days of the year. I mean cold. Especially since the water is there, it was even colder,” Ann said. ​“She had her clipboard and was walking around. Oh, she knew just what she was doing!”

Corolla will attend Massachusetts Maritime Academy in the fall. Her dream is to work on a tugboat. She would also like to work on a container ship because they have the ability to travel the whole world.

“Tugs for the long run, because I am that kind of person that likes to stay settled in one place for a little while. They typically stay in the harbor. Sometimes they are moved back and forth but for the most part they are stationed,” Corolla said. ​“I do like to travel but I do also like to stay.”

While Sea Scouts is affiliated with Boy Scouts, Ship 1 has been female dominated while the maritime industry is predominantly male affiliated. Corolla is the first female in New Haven county to earn the rank as Quartermaster.

“Anything that boys can do, girls can do,” Corolla said. ​“Being the first female in my ship, coming from New Haven, I was super, overly excited. My skipper told me that there weren’t many females in general and we couldn’t really find any records of there being a female [Quartermaster]. Being the first one in New Haven and on my ship was kind of inspiring.”