Enhancing carpentry skills

The Weiser High School carpentry classes went to the annual construction combine held at the Home Depot in Meridian. They had an excellent time learning a ton about the field of construction and winning a bunch of fun prizes.

 This annual event has been going on for quite a few years now with the intent being to not only give kids in high school a chance to learn more about construction but also to build a large number of sheds for retired veterans.

 While there, the kids walked from booth to booth and got to ask various participating companies and sponsors about things in the construction industry such as how to apply PPE and restore water damage. 

 The kids also got to test various heavy equipment and learn how to use it and what it is for. Kids could operate a crane, machines for concrete, scissor lifts, and even more. All of it was provided by the various sponsors.

 On top of all of that, there were even competitions the kids could participate in to win fun prizes. One was a test to see how fast you could get PPE equipment on. Another one was various nailing competitions with the best times winning prizes such as a nice new hammer. Another competition was one using RC versions of common construction tools to complete a challenge as fast as possible. Another challenge forced the kids to aim at a crane with precision with the closest ones winning prizes.

 That was not the only way to win prizes, however. At the start, everyone was given a blank bingo card, and by going to each of the stations they would slowly acquire stamps to fill the card out with each bingo giving the person a raffle ticket. Those raffle tickets could help the kids win various prizes such as a new backpack, a ratchet set, various gift cards, a cooler, and even more.

 Weiser had a ton of winners of these prizes with many of the kids winning multiple due to their active participation and diligence when it came to getting their bingos and participating in the fun-filled day.

 However, even for the kids who sadly did not win anything, they were still able to get some awesome freebies from each of the booths such as water bottles, hats, t-shirts, and various equipment with each kid coming home with over a hundred dollars worth of stuff. 

 The teacher of the construction class, Jon Lundberg, felt the event was a grand success and he can’t wait to go back again and win even more fun prizes.

 “The construction combine at Home Depot was a fantastic experience. I think all of my students had a great time and learned a lot, getting a chance for some of them to get to talk to future employers. It was a lot of fun! Well worth going!” Lundberg said.

 One student, Kenny Babb who won four prizes during the raffle had a great time in particular, happy that he got to learn so much about the construction field.

 “It was very fun. Meeting all the different companies gave us tons of information to apply to our lives. That’s not even mentioning all the fun tasks and competitions,” Babb said. 

 The WHS construction classes are planning to continue to go to this event every year from now on as long as they can so hopefully this event can continue to be successful for them to go to and next year they can have yet another spectacular time.