HBF School Projects Blooming This Spring
HBF's Chris McDowell shows Amity High's John Sterns Harvest House
HBF reached out to the more than 30 Portland area high school construction programs at the beginning of the school year, and now has a growing list of programs poised to completed valued work for our nonprofit shelter providers. The students at Reynolds Learning Academy are currently finishing up a tool shed that we will add to the gardens at HomePlate Youth Services. The students finished wonderful cedar planting boxes for the Beaverton drop-in center, which are ready for planting. HBF will be helping the students perform at a high level by donating new tools to this pre-apprenticeship program.
For Yamhill Carlton High School , we are donating kits so the students can build bee houses for the men who live at the nearby Blanchet House Farm. This rural facility provides men in recovery the opportunity to take care of farm animals, and work in a woodshop.
Merlo High Playhouses
Students at Beaverton’s Merlo Station High have finished some terrific playhouses, which will be featured at the upcoming HBA Spring Home and Garden show. They will also build picnic tables for pod shelter villages this spring. Portland’s Grant High students will build tables as well, continuing our successful pilot of the “Picnic Table Project” last year. A grant from National Association of Home Builders,Bank of America, and International Wood Products helped us provide materials so Sam Barlow High in Gresham, Reynolds Learning Academy, and Constructing Hope could build sturdy cedar tables, which are now in use at three Portland housing villages.
Amity High’s construction teacher John Sterns toured the grounds of our project for Yamhill Community Action Partnership’s Harvest House. His students will come to the site this spring and help with fencing, and build a covered outdoor pavilion. A grant from Fireside Home Solutions will help make this project a reality.
Glencoe's Todd Patterson learns about Project Homeless Connect
Glencoe High’s Todd Patterson came out to see the opportunities at Project Homeless Connect in Hillsboro. His students will help build a shed, and work on the grounds of the project as a part of their senior capstone project. Students at St. Helens High will help build a shed, and we are in talks with the construction programs at Tigard, Tualatin, Gresham, and Sam Barlow High for further involvement.
Would you like to help with school outreach? Contact HBF’s Teresa Spangler, Teresas@hbapdx.org