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By
LINDSAY RANDALL
Staff Writer
Gone
are the days of high-school shop class, where sawdust-coated
students sweated over lumber and wrestled with blowtorches and
electric saws. Today's high school classes are constructing with
computers.
In
the technology education classroom at Hawkins High School, the air
is clean and wood-particle-free. The haphazardly constructed wooden
tables, birdhouses and stools have been replaced by long tables and
tall chairs. Piles of wood and tools are cleared out, and long rows
of gleaming computers circle the room.
And four Hawkins students are capitalizing on the knowledge they've
gleaned in this modern "shop" class to benefit foster children.
These techies, headed by teacher Bob Behnke, are constructing 70
easels for an unusual, charitable art project called East Texas
Heart
Gallery. The gallery is a touring exhibit of photographs of foster
children who are ready for adoption. Volunteer artists have taken
scores of pictures designed to represent the child's personality and
spirit. There is a grinning girl named Pavla who shoots a
basketball, while A'lexus tips her hat at the camera and five
brothers laugh and flex their muscles. Producer Denice Grugle said
in a world where 19,000 children "age-out" of adoption eligibility
every year, 70 percent of children waiting for families are 8 years
old or older in minority and sibling groups.
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Ms.
Grugle said the program is definitely working at raising awareness
and adoption rates, but the need is ever-present for the children.
"They want a mom and dad so bad," Ms. Grugle said. "And they're
positive, uplifted children that are really hoping for their perfect
mom and dad." Junior Zach Barrett, senior Michael Randell, and
sophomores Connor Montgomery and Aaron Norman are working with that
hope and donating their class and extracurricular time to help.
Months ago, the gallery asked the Holly Lake Kiwanis club to donate
money to provide easels for the show, scheduled for April. Behnke, a
Kiwanis member, was immediately asked if his technology education
class could just make the easels and donate them to the project. He
agreed excitedly. "It's a real-world application that someone's
going to use to benefit someone else," Behnke said. "And as long as
they're doing something productive, I let them go." The four boys
love the class they've affectionately dubbed "tech," and Norman
teases his friend Randell by saying under his breath, "Tech's the
only place Michael feels smart." They all laugh, and interrupt each
other in their enthusiasm to describe the inner workings of the
cutting-edge techniques, software and CNC machine they'll use to
make the easels.
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Barrett pulls up an image of the easel he's designed in CAD, a
drafting program, and explains that the computer sends the image,
proportions and details of the easel to the CNC machine, which looks
more like a giant, glass-encased microscope than an ultra-fast,
ultra-precise tool. "This program's really incredible," Barrett
said. "You can pretty much do anything in there. Your car was cut
from a CNC machine." His fellow techies nod in agreement, and list
all the appliances and objects created with the very technology that
rests stolidly in their tech classroom. They show boxes of dominoes
cut from the machine, and proudly exhibit sports team’s logos and
other metal cutouts.
Next, the students carefully place the wood under the machine's
drill bit, close the door and let CNC do its magic. Within minutes,
the leg of an easel is perfectly cut out. A couple of screws and
minor assembling later, and the easel is complete. "It is slick,"
Behnke said emphatically. "If I ever want to make another easel,
I'll just pull up the easel file, load the material, turn it loose
and let it go." Behnke worked for 14 years to obtain the bulky,
expensive CNC machine, and thanked a helpful principal, Charles
Leffall, and a generous school board for the improvement to his
class.
"We
have birthday parties for all major equipment," Behnke joked. "But
he (Leffall) really believes in what the program does for kids, and
so do I."
East Texas Heart Gallery will be held from noon-6 p.m. on April 9
and from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. on April 10-11. The exhibit will be at the
Tyler Woman's Building, 911 S. Broadway Ave., and there will be
entertainment, music and refreshments available. Ms. Grugel said
volunteers are still needed, and anyone interested should call (903)
521-4570.
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