After months of planning and building, drivers entering Pe Ell will now be greeted by a newly decorated welcome sign and recreation area.
While the sign was built four years ago, students on Pe Ell’s SkillsUSA team have spent the last several months since the start of the school year developing and implementing a plan to beautify the town’s welcome sign and the area around it.
The project has been student-driven from the beginning. The team’s adviser, Pe Ell School teacher Phil Kepler, said the students planned every aspect of the project and were responsible for most of the construction activity. They were even responsible for calling and writing letters to local businesses to solicit donations for the project.
Among the businesses that donated were Palmer Lumber, which provided lumber for constructing the new additions to the welcome sign as well as the recreational area; Green Roof Gardens, which donated the plants for the flower beds; and Weyerhaeuser, which donated the gravel for the recreation area and lumber for building picnic tables. The picnic tables, built using Weyerhaeuser lumber, will be auctioned off to raise money for the SkillsUSA team to pay for entry fees for competitions and shirts for the students. Altogether, Kepler estimated that each student had spent 40 to 50 hours working on the project. According to Kepler, the team members began construction for their project on Nov. 1. They built and measured everything for the project.
When asked, all of the students expressed excitement about their finished product and looked forward to coming back to the site to enjoy their work. One student, Brookelynn King, said the reason she wanted to take part in the sign project was because it gave her a chance to give back to her community while also having the opportunity to participate in SkillsUSA.
Another student, Logan Oechser, has been involved from the beginning. He said he enjoyed working on the project because he loves building things and participating gave him the chance to work on a bench and picnic table. Oechser also said that he wouldn’t be able to participate in the state competition in Tacoma but said he was looking forward to coming back to SkillsUSA next year.
A third student, Konnor Pilz, said he had recently moved to Pe Ell — which he described as a small, close community where everyone is friendly — from Nevada. Pilz said he saw the project as a chance to get his community service hours for school while having the opportunity to give back to the community that’s embraced him.
The students will be competing in the SkillsUSA state competition in Tacoma. The state competition will be held from March 31 to April 2. The competition will involve a presentation on their project to a panel of judges. During their presentation, the students will talk about their project, why they chose it and what its effects on the community will be. As part of their presentation, the students will have to provide a booklet of at least 30 pages and will develop a slideshow.
Should the team succeed at the state competition, they will have the opportunity to attend the national competition in Atlanta, Georgia, during the week of June 20.
