Students from Walton Central School District are leaving their imprint on the fairgrounds this year, having made 30 new benches in a construction class. The new benches will replace the old benches that had deteriorated over the years.
The class, led by Walton CSD teacher Sal Salvia, teaches students the art of construction through projects like making baseball bats, fishing nets, model sheds and a full size shed.
Salvia said this year, he added the bench building as an extra project after being approached by Dan Hodges. Hodges works at the school, but he is also the former fair board president and a fair board member of 30 years.
Hodges said the fair board was looking to replace some benches that have been worn down, and thought of Salvia’s construction class because he recalled making benches for the fair when he was a student at Walton CSD.
“It’s just a fun project, and it gets kids involved with the fair,” Hodges said.
The board bought the supplies from Ren Rest Lumber & Building Supply in Walton for the students to build 30 benches, each five feet long. The old benches were seven feet long, but Hodges said they wanted to save money and space.
Construction began in February and took approximately two months for the students to complete. Salvia said the project was completed through an assembly line method.
“Near the end I can tell that they were getting tired of cutting and assembly, but we did it,” Salvia said.
The construction class had 24 students working on the benches including Austin Miller, Kyle Miller, Nicholas Sarrantonio, Jayden Hoffmeister, Noah Tompkins-Covell, James Seward, Logan Beardslee, Jacob Scofield, Edward Salimbangon, Damien Watson, Landon Taylor, Landen Stanton, Trent Sparling, Maxwell Dutcher, Frank Brown, Derek Basile, Holden Church, David Gatchalian, Faith Lambert, Joseph Bolster, Jeffrey Shelton, Joseph Fay, Brandon Carman and Malachi Barringer. Salvia said several of his seventh grade students also helped with the project.
Students’ signed the benches that they worked on with their initials so they will be able to identify their work at the fairgrounds for years to come.
Hodges emphasized the role Salvia played in putting this project together along with Walton CSD FFA advisor and agriculture teacher Vanessa Wickham.
“We couldn’t have done it without them, they went above and beyond for us,” Hodges said.
