Students in Bruce Weirich’s Advanced Woodworking class at Galion High School were tasked with a project from Galion Superintendent Jennifer Allerding to design and build picnic tables for different areas of the school district’s campus.
The results are eight beautiful new picnic tables at the district’s soccer fields, at Unckrich Stadium in Heise Park, and in other select areas around campus.
“My classes have built picnic tables in the past,” Weirich said. “Students in my Advanced Woodworking class did a great job designing and building these tables!”
Weirich’s students developed a “mass production” setup. Students first cut all the pieces needed to build the tables, and groups of three students took their parts and assembled their respective tables.
“Building the tables in this manner was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle,” Weirich said. “I’m really proud of my students.”
Once the tables were completed, Weirich distributed ballots to the staff at Galion High School and asked them to judge the picnic tables. Staff members wrote down their first and second choices during the judging period.
“I asked the teachers to judge the tables based on which one they would want to take home,” Weirich said. “The staff did a great job judging the tables and we found out who our first and second place winners were for the competition.”
When the judging was complete, GHS students Brodyn Butcher, Carter Dominy, and Jaden Scott were the first-place winners as selected by the high school staff. When asked about the best part of the project, each student had a unique answer.
“The best part of the project was learning how to work together as a team,” Butcher said.
“For me, it was learning how to work as part of a team and learning how to build a picnic table,” Carter Dominy explained.
And Jaden Scott’s response to the question was one simple word, “Winning!”
All the materials for the project were purchased at Lowe’s. Brodyn, Carter, and Jaden each received a brand-new work bag, complete with many tools they can use to build projects on their own.
“I am beyond impressed with the work that all 25 of Mr. Weirich’s Advanced Woodworking students did in building their respective picnic tables,” Superintendent Allerding said. “These are wonderful additions to our campus, and I hope our students, their families, and the Galion community will enjoy them when they come to cheer on the Tigers.”