Two students from Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) have come together to make a bench for their former school.
Brody Wallington and Riley Mann are Gr.11 students from ECS, and with the help of community members and their teacher Mark Kroeker, they have made a wood and metal bench for Bienfait Weldon School.
Brody’s younger brother Dominique, who was a Grade 8 student from Weldon School, passed away recently. Brody remembers students and staff at the school always being very nice and helpful to his brother. As such, Brody wanted to take an opportunity to give directly back to the school that was so kind to Dominique.
This opportunity was not only a way for Brody to say thank you to his past school, but it was also an opportunity for the two friends to practise welding.
"I had taken the old bench home because my husband is a welder and he said it is too far gone to bother repairing. He told me that a new bench had to be bought or made to replace the old one," said Janet Mann, who is the Grade 5 and 6 teacher at Weldon School.
“Riley Mann (son of Janet Mann) and his friend Brody Wallington decided in their welding class they were going to build a bench for Weldon School. I have been at this school for a long time and this is the first time this has ever happened where we had some students from ECS help us out this way," she added.
Mark Kroeker, who teaches welding and machining at ECS, was thrilled at the idea the two students had to replace a broken bench at Weldon School.
"Riley and Brody basically made this bench all by themselves and I gave them some guidance during its construction," said Kroeker.
"My first thought when they approached me with this idea, was I wanted to make it happen. We had to consider how much time we had left in the semester, but fortunately there was enough time, resources and community support to get this bench idea off paper and into practice," he added.
Kroeker said that he believes that Riley and Brody are both fine examples of the students that are at ECS.
Getting to practice your niche at school is always something a student can enjoy doing, and Brody said plainly the idea to make the bench arose from the fact that the old bench was in disrepair.
But as the work on the bench progressed and it came time to deliver the bench, the project held a lot more meaning than just replacing an old broken bench.
"We picked the logos for Bienfait and Estevan and put it all together in a scheme and sent it all to KRJ Custom Fabrication Ltd. out of Estevan for them to use their plasma cutter and everything came out looking very nice," said Riley.
"We started around Christmas and we finished a few days ago. I think between those times we spent about 25 to 30 hours on this bench," Brody added.
