Fitch student donating Adirondack chair once complete to Austintown Junior Women's League
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
As Bria Eldridge checked the measured cuts of pieces of wood that would become the seat of a chair she is making, she said it’s about giving back.
That’s because her Adirondack chair will be auctioned as a fundraiser for the Austintown Junior Women’s League. “This means a lot to build this chair for them,” Bria said with a smile.
The 16-year old sophomore at Fitch High School said she became interested in the class because of her uncle.
“I started working with my uncle doing construction and I just found that this was something I was good at and enjoyed,” Bria said. “I like to give back a lot, and it’s something I’m good at. I enjoy building this chair for this charity.”
“That means a lot to us. A student, a young person in the community who realizes what we do in the community in terms of services and community” who gives back to us, said Kathy Rusback, president of the Austintown Junior Women’s League. She said the chair will be part of a silent auction at a fundraising event. Rusback said the group plans to donate back to the class for making the chair.
“Anytime we can get something to promote women or girls to do something for the community or get involved is great,” Rusback said.
Bria is one of about 20 students in Shawn Irwin’s “Woods 2” class, one of four wood-shop classes offered at Fitch High School. Each level offers students some freedom in deciding which item to build. Students begin in Woods 1 by building a cutting board, among other choices, and progress to a clock or Adirondack chair, amid other options, in Woods 2 and graduate to more complicated projects from there. Students have gone on to build entertainment centers or a poker table in the higher-level Woods 3 and 4 classes.
“They’re using a variety of techniques. They’re taking raw materials and conditioning them and shaping them using tools, machines and, in some cases, computer” programming such as laser-engraving designs, said Shawn Irwin, Fitch wood-shop instructor.
The elective course is available for freshmen through senior students at Fitch. Students pay a materials fee for the raw wood that they process and use, and other wood is purchased through school funds. At the end, the students keep their creations, and some give their creations to family members.
Sophomore Drew Klapac, 16, plans on having his Adirondack chair on the back deck of his family’s home. He said the toughest part of building the chair is “getting all the pieces ready to assemble.”
Bria echoed his thoughts and said the toughest part is “to get all the measurements to meet so it will come together.”
Irwin was quick to thank the Austintown schools administration for supporting a wood-shop class. He said some districts have cut the class.
“We’re fortunate enough that our leadership here recognizes that this does benefit the students,” he said. “I have many students in here that can’t read a ruler” at the start of the class, a fourth-grade math requirement. “ ... [This] hits home because they’re using their hands and it clicks,” and they can use what they’ve learned, Irwin said.