WCTC teens raise accessibility for gardening students at CASS
(Left to Right) Drayk Hutchinson (grade 9, Belfast Area High School), Chris Taylor (grade 9, Belfast Area High School), Ace Santiago (grade 9, Mount View High School), Chance Robinson (grade 9, Searsport District High School), Chris Kein, Explore CTE Instructor. (Photo courtesy Waldo County Technical Center)
(Left to Right) Drayk Hutchinson (grade 9, Belfast Area High School), Chris Taylor (grade 9, Belfast Area High School), Ace Santiago (grade 9, Mount View High School), Chance Robinson (grade 9, Searsport District High School), Chris Kein, Explore CTE Instructor. (Photo courtesy Waldo County Technical Center)
Students from Waldo County Technical Center’s (WCTC) Explore CTE program combined building construction skills with the thrill of helping others when they created and built a wheelchair accessible raised bed for Captain Albert Stevens School’s (CASS) gardening and Foodcorps programs.
Students learned skills such as cutting angles, using a chop saw, reading blueprints, creating job estimates and communicating with Belfast gardening instructors, Nicole Caruso and Kiernan Sellars. The class delivered and installed the raised bed to CASS when it was completed.
When asked what his favorite part of this experience was, Matthew Dimmitt, a ninth grader from Mount View High School, said, “It makes you feel good to help people.”
Ace Santiago, also a ninth grader from Mount View, said, “ When I saw the kid going up to the planter, he had a big smile. It made me feel warm inside”.
The students made a second wheelchair accessible raised bed that is available for purchase.
For information about purchasing this or for further information on the Explore CTE program at WCTC, contact instructor Chris Kein at (207)342-5231 or email at ckein@waldotech.org.
