Grade 10 students at St. Patrick High School spent the past week sanding and sawing, building 10 baby cradles to donate to a worthy cause.
The finished product, in the final stages at the south-side school, are headed for the Apostles of Christ’s Teachings Christian Day Camp, where they’ll be filled with baby goods and donated to various charities around Thunder Bay.
Fifteen-year-old Chase Allam said there was no hesitation when the project was first proposed.
“It felt good to do,” he said Thursday. “Helping out the community is always good. It’s nice to do fun projects and it was easy to do, as well.
Classmate D.J. DePiero said working with wood is always fun. Having it help out others was the icing on the cake.
“Giving back to the community is just a bonus on top of having fun in class,” he said.
The teen said he didn’t think much about what they were trying to accomplished when it was first suggested, but the more he did think about it, the more he realized what it meant.
“When we started doing it I thought about it more and I was surprised at how much more we would be doing on top of doing another project in class,” DePiero said.
Teacher Ramon Verardo said making the rocking cradles created an enthusiastic environment in the classroom, making his job that much easier.
“I didn’t have to tell them to get the tools out or say let’s get going, they just knew what to do. The grabbed the material and started going,” Verardo said.
Students did all the work, choosing the lumber, cutting and shaping it to size, gluing pieces together to create a finished product worthy of any baby store.
There were hiccups along the way, but Verardo said it’s all part of the learning process.
In the end, the students got as much out of it as the charities will, he said.
“They’re not getting anything for it in return, so they were motivated to just give something back to the community, and to learn as well,” he said.
Charity spokeswoman Natalia Bilynskyy, who co-ordinates the ACT Christian Day Camp out of St. Agnes Parish, said the cradles will help introduce children from age seven to 11 about charitable acts and giving back in their own way.
“It came about a concept to do charitable acts for a mother’s project here at St. Patrick High School, as well as Birthright. So I contacted the principal at the school and inquired if there was a way we could get one of the construction classes to help.”
The initial order was for 20 cradles, and though the students didn’t quite hit that goal, Verardo said he’s not ruling out making more.
