Last week's wind storm blew over one of the Westside Little League dugouts, scattering wood and metal parts through the field. High School House construction students took time to gather the parts, rebuild, and reinforce the dugout for the community.
With winds getting up to 70 miles an hour last week, the dugout was completely destroyed. 35 construction students from Great Falls High and CMR took a break from their High School House project and got work on the dugout rebuild for the Baseball Association.
C.M Russell High School senior and High School House construction student Joe Davis says his favorite part about the dugout project is “working for the community, so they don't have to do this themselves, get the dugout back up. Honestly, I like swinging a hammer, whacking nails. That's pretty fun.Just working with my hands, being on the job, everything like that. Learning new things, always learning”.
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While reusing most of the original parts of the dugout, the students focused on reinforcing the structure to withstand strong winds in the future, rebuilding it from the ground up.
They took the time to re-level the foundation, implement a closer nail pattern, and add hurricane ties to the beams.
High School House Instructor Pete Pace explains, “We decided to come over here with the high school kids and teach them some carpentry, teach them how to rebuild, and how to really beef things up in the high wind areas here in north central Montana. And also, give back to your community”.
The High School House program often takes opportunities to help the community, previously completing projects at the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art and at the Grace Home Veterans Center.
Pace says, “It's just great to get out with these kids when the opportunity arises and help out the city of Great Falls, while teaching good carpentry skills and good volunteer, civic minded skills and duties”.
After about eight days of work, the project is expected to be completed by Wednesday.
The final touches are to add the metal sheeting back to the exterior of the dugout. It will then be ready to withstand the wind, and little league players, for years to come.
