VHS Construction Class Builds Storage Building for Football Program!

The start of the High School Football season is creeping around the corner, and the Vidalia Indians have been busy gearing up for the 2023 season. Over 70 players completed Spring and are now in summer workouts and training. Vidalia's new Head Coach, Rodney Garvin, says the kids are "working hard and getting better every day" as the Indians prepare to open the 2023 season on August 18th against South Effingham.

Garvin is not the only thing new around the Indian facility, as the program has a new storage building for their on-field practice equipment, thanks to the Vidalia High School Construction classes.

Under the direction of instructor Gray Meredith, the classes constructed a building for the program that was built at no cost to the program or the school, "Coach Garvin approached me and said, we need a bigger storage building for some of our equipment. He had talked with a locally owned business, who said they would donate all the material which was awesome, and it gave us the opportunity to work with material at no cost to us."

The project, which Meredith says "was a good project," gave the construction classes a hands-on experience in a "real world atmosphere," which Meredith says is invaluable. "Anytime we can build a real project that the school is going to use, or somebody's going to use, I think the students get more out of it versus something that we just do here in the shop, and then we take it back apart."

Meredith said that he hopes this is not a one-and-done type of thing, "I'd love to be able to do this once a year if given the opportunity." In fact, Meredith and his crew have already signed up for their next project, a new pavilion for the recently renovated Dr. Mark and Tonya Spivey Public Library. "We're going to kick that project off in August. The material is being donated, and we're going to donate the labor and take a few Saturdays and knock it out."

The projects give the students "hands-on skills experience," and Meredith says that the experience "provides the program excitement, "these are projects that, if I was running a construction company, are what I would be bidding on. This is what I would be doing, and they get to see it in action.

The Construction class, which is part of the school's CTAE program, has Skills USA embedded in the curriculum and provides opportunities to learn additional skills in the construction field, "in addition to carpentry, we are able to give students a chance to learn electrical and plumbing. They also have competitions where the students are introduced to industry leaders. You know, the guys out there that are looking for, High school students to hire, so it's a good opportunity for them to get their foot in the door with some great construction companies."