Lenape Tech Students Use their Shop Skills to Deck the Halls

 

by Sarah Hepfl and Jonathan Weaver

Students in the Natural Resources Technology (NRT) Shop at Lenape Technical High School have been spreading joy and holiday spirit this season.

NRT students used the skills they acquired from their shop class in order to make decorations and put together a Christmas display around their school grounds.

Included in the Christmas display are wooden snowmen figures, swags, and beautiful poinsettia arrangements.

But what are swags? For those who aren’t sure, swags are arrangements made of pine tree branches using spruce and juniper. The students made a red wooden sled and used it to display the swag.

Natural Resources Technology Instructor Steve Misera explained what the NRT shop does to give back to the community.

“We’ve been working with the swags for two years. This is new for (us to do) the poinsettias, but this year they did a great job with the poinsettias. Every year we do some work at the Crooked Creek’s Environmental Learning Center, we help to do some clean up there,” Misera Said.

Misera went on to explain what work went into making the swags.

“We were working with the (Kittanning Garden Club) to help do their heavy lifting for making these swags. One of the first things we did was to go out and pick up the Christmas trees that they had ordered from the nursery,” Misera said.

“We sent students back up to help trim the branches off the Christmas Tree so they could use them to make the swags. We came back again on the following Monday to help them trim the pieces some more and gather them up so they could put the swags together.”

According to Kittanning Garden Club member Sue Bauer, 255 swags of arborvitae spruce and juniper were made November 14-16 in Mor-Cor Limited’s warehouse on Butler Road in West Kittanning.

The $2,500 in profit will be used for flowers and beautification to Kittanning Riverfront Park. Swags were $15 each.

Bauer said that students learned how to sell the swags via e-mail and how to organize them via spreadsheet, as well as recognize the types of greens and how to assemble the swags.

“Their help was invaluable to the success of the project. It was a great experience for the Garden Club and Mr. Steve Misera’s Natural Resources class to partner on this project the last two years,” Bauer said.

Many local businesses also supported the project, hanging swags on their front doors.

The swags have been made since the mid-1980’s to decorate Kittanning Borough parking meters and tree cages.

More than 2,500 have been made since 2004.

Students in the NRT shop utilized the school’s greenhouse to grow the poinsettias.

“Each year the Natural Resources Technology class raises poinsettias in a green house and we sell them as a fundraiser. Any time we have any leftover poinsettias we decided to donate some to both the hospital and a local nursing home,” Misera said.

Natural Resources Technology Student Lisa Cuddy expressed her enjoyment of the project.

“I found doing the swags really fun because it’s just nice to help the community and it’s just a nice experience to have.” Cuddy said.

Students had lots of fun using the skills they learned in their shop to spread joy and Christmas cheer throughout their school and their community.