It starts with a love for learning and an exchange of ideas and ends with some pretty awesome artwork created in the agri shop at Caddo Hills High School.
My wife and I were witness to this last Saturday while walking through the Norman Fall Festival. We came across a booth manned by students from Caddo Hills. Among the items they were selling were metal signs and fire pits. My wife, Gail, began talking to Chris Bour, a student at Caddo Hills. Caddo Hills students had presented the Mount Ida Area Chamber of Commerce with a metal sign they had created using their plasma cam cutter and DesignEdge software. Gail asked Chris if they would be able to create a sign featuring the logo of the Montgomery County News and our company 3 Rivers Media llc.
Chris looked at some photos of the logos and felt confident he could recreate the logos in metal.
I stopped by the school Monday morning to watch Chris and his teacher Brad Hartwick work on the projects. The process began as many do today, sitting in front of a computer. The teacher student pair took turns at the computer tweaking the template for the sign. Unfortunately, the photos of the logos weren’t of a high enough resolution for them to use as a template so they had to recreate the logos using DesignEdge software.
Undaunted, they used a process of trial and error as they recreated the logos. Hartwick joked that the 3 Rivers Media logo was probably going to be the hardest he would do, but that didn’t stop he and Bour from completing the task.
Bour stated that he enjoys all aspects of the process. Watching Bour and Hartwick work on the design revealed that student and teacher both are involved with the process from beginning to end.
As they worked on the design Hartwick explained that while students were working on projects like ours they were learning skills that will prepare them for high paying jobs in the workforce. He stated that Caterpillar in Little Rock currently has over 30 positions open that use the skills students are learning in his classroom. Each position starts at around $25 an hour with room to grow to nearly $40 an hour within a year on the job.
Once the logo was finished they started the plasma cam and sat back while the machine cut out the logo. Hartwick said that it usually takes about 45 minutes to set a design and about five minutes to cut it out.
Students at Caddo Hills have produced a host signs and other items using the welder. One of the more popular items are custom fire pits. While they do have a series of popular templates, they can customize a fire pit to meet your needs.
Money raised from the projects goes back into the program. Hartwick stated that the equipment was purchased using Perkins grants which requires all money made from the projects to go back to the program for the first five years of use.
If you would like to order a sign, or some other metal project contact the Caddo Hills School District at (870) 356-5700, or look for them at area festivals and events.
