Dempsey students build picnic tables for service project

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Students Dempsey Middle School spent several of their free periods last week working on picnic tables as part of a service project.

The students are part of Nicki Wright’s Career-Based-Intervention program, which is funded by the Delaware Area Career Center, for kids who may be unsure what they want to do as a career and enroll in the course to learn about more options. Wright said she got the idea to have her students build picnic tables because there is no outdoor seating at Dempsey.

“Teachers love to bring kids outside for lessons, but students have nowhere to sit,” Wright said Friday. “Staff members frequently come outside and eat their lunch on the bleachers to enjoy the nice weather.”

Wright said her students will be building five picnic tables for the school to use as part of a service project through the Ohio Commission on Service and Volunteerism, also known as Serve Ohio. Wright said she was going to pay for the materials to build the picnic tables out of pocket but heard about Serve Ohio and applied for their Global Youth Service Day grant.

To help assist the students, Columbus State Community College Construction Management Professor David Busch spent three days showing students how to build the picnic tables.

Wright said she and her students worked with Busch last year when he taught them to build birdhouses for the wetlands behind Dempsey.

“These picnic tables will not only provide opportunity for the CBI students to do hands on learning through building of picnic tables but the tables will serve as a place of community for our students body,” Wright wrote in her application for the grant.

Wright said her students worked on the picnic tables from April 19-21.

Wright said it was great to see all of her students working together and learning from the project.

“They are using real-life practical skills and learning how to work as a team,” Wright said. “Many of them are hands-on learns and want to learn by doing.”

Wright said Busch told her the wood will take time to cure, but hopes that next year Dempsey art students can decorate the tables.

Columbus State Community College Construction Management Professor David Busch holds the legs of a picnic table together while Zach Johnson, an eighth grader in the Career Based Intervention course at Dempsey Middle School, screws the pieces together. The materials for the picnic table were purchased through a grant from Serve Ohio.
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2017/04/web1_DSC_1744.jpgColumbus State Community College Construction Management Professor David Busch holds the legs of a picnic table together while Zach Johnson, an eighth grader in the Career Based Intervention course at Dempsey Middle School, screws the pieces together. The materials for the picnic table were purchased through a grant from Serve Ohio.

Eighth grader Gavin Sullivan holds a section of the under-construction picnic table together while Lily Lectka, also an eighth grader, screws in several screws Friday afternoon. The student’s teacher, Nicki Wright, said the construction project is a great way to teach the students real skills and teamwork.
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2017/04/web1_DSC_1751.jpgEighth grader Gavin Sullivan holds a section of the under-construction picnic table together while Lily Lectka, also an eighth grader, screws in several screws Friday afternoon. The student’s teacher, Nicki Wright, said the construction project is a great way to teach the students real skills and teamwork.

By Glenn Battishill

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Glenn Battishill can be reached at 740-413-0903 or on Twitter @BattishillDG.

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