Shoals Section Honors Top Craft Students

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

By Peggy Sanford

Lexington High School students Jake Hammond and Seth Lepere won an April 4 construction competition at their Lauderdale County school and took home new carpentry tools provided by the Alabama AGC Shoals Section as prizes. The two 11th-grade students bested eight other two-member teams from Lexington’s career-technical program to win the FFA “Construction Shootout.” The AGC had provided safety goggles for all participants in the competition and supplied carpentry tool bags for the two members of the first-place team, said Shoals Section Office Manager Melody Hallmark. “One of our largest problems facing our members is manpower, so anything we can do to promote the construction industry … this is an opportunity to do it while these kids are deciding their future,” Hallmark said. Students in the drafting program at Lauderdale County’s Allen Thornton Career Technical Center in Killen drew blueprints for the competition, said Lexington High School’s agriscience teacher and FFA advisor, Gary Dan Williams. The blueprints were presented to Construction Shootout participants the day of the competition and teams had three-and-a-half hours to execute the plans, Williams said. The blueprints called for building stud walls with a window and a door opening; a partition intersection; rafters; gable end studs and a staircase, Williams said. The winning team, and seven others, completed the entire plans, Williams said. “I didn’t think that would ever happen,” he said. Charles Hardy, carpentry and cabinetry instructor at Northwest-Shoals Community College, chose the winning team based mainly on the plumb, level and square of their constructions, Williams said. Hammond has competed previously – he was a member of the Lexington High School team that last year brought home the top prize in the state FFA construction competition. For Lepere, the Lexington Shootout was his first competition. “It was a little hard. You’re going up against your friends and people you know; but we knew what we were doing and what we had to do,” Lepere said. Williams instituted the Construction Shootout at Lexington this year. “I want people to realize how important career-technical education is,” Williams said. “I want people to see what we’re doing.” Williams said he also wants to connect employers to future employees. He firmly believes that employers who witnessed the Shootout will want to hire its participants. “I’m very confident,” he said before the April competition. “We don’t play at Lexington.”