A few Ocosta Junior-Senior High School students are helping keep their community together and involved through a pandemic that has separated and isolated so many people.
Sandy Prosser, president of the Tokeland-North Cove Chamber of Commerce, said the area around there, in a non-pandemic situation, hosts 20 community events. But COVID-19 has changed things, causing a reduction down to five events.
“We’ve scaled back,” she said.
That’s where the students came in.
Don Watkins, art teacher at Ocosta Junior-Senior High School, said the students came up with the idea in Fall 2021 when they were talking to the Tokeland-North Cove Chamber of Commerce, which Watkins said is a longtime supporter of Ocosta School District in Westport.
“They have supported the arts program at Ocosta ever since I came here over 30 years ago,” Watkins said. “They’ve done fundraisers. (Then) the kids thought about what they could do for the chamber as a thank you during this COVID-19 era.”
Watkins said the high school students did the research and came up with a design that showed influence from the Indigenous people who are from the area for a mobile safety event trailer.
The custom-crafted trailer, modeled after a traditional plank house, was designed to help reduce health risks at Tokeland’s outdoor gatherings and events, according to a Tokeland-North Cove Chamber news release. The safety station on wheels is used to store and distribute face masks and gloves, thermometers, stickers to mark safe-distancing, hand sanitizer, containment fencing for crowd control, as well as safe practice signage. It also is used as storage for hand-washing stations that are used at the events.
“We jumped on the opportunity to make the Ocosta students’ idea of the event safety trailer a reality,” Prosser said. “The trailer was a huge contributor to increasing public safety at all of our Tokeland events, which we had modified to help keep visitors safer while attending them.”
Prosser said Tokeland-North Cove put a pretty extensive proposal to raise funds to build the trailers. She said Shoalwater Bay Tribe sent $22,000 for the project and Pacific County Economic Development Council gave $11,000.
“The idea was to build three trailers,” she said. “We were under budget, so we’re using the extra to provide shelving units.”
The Ocosta students have made multiple trailers with one for the Tokeland-North Cove Chamber of Commerce, one for the Shoalwater Bay Tribe and their events, as well as one for the Associate Student Body of Ocosta Junior-Senior High School, which will be used as a cleaning station, as well as for concessions and merchandise at school events.
The trailer the students built for school events is white and it will be painted to represent the school and the art students will put logos on it, so it fits the theme of the Ocosta Wildcats. The project is also a collaboration with the culinary arts class.
Watkins said he’s proud of his senior students Dylan Todd and Cyrus Cardreon, as well as his junior students Lidia Morales and Gage Grigsby.
“They did an excellent job of taking direction and learning the technique of carpentry. Everything was within one-sixteenth of an inch. (They were) really accurate.”
Watkins said the students had to do the work themselves mostly, as Watkins was rehabbing from ankle surgery. But, Watkins was there guiding them through their work.
“They burned cedar, and then rubbed off the ash and it becomes water resistant,” he said. “We followed the same techniques with cedar sidings and roofings.
Watkins said the students followed a lot of the techniques used with traditional plank houses, which makes them sturdy and allows for easier transportation.
“I had no problem driving down the highway at 50 (mph),” Watkins said. “We tried to stay with the cultural lesson. Trying to make it reflect the South Beach (and) Tokeland area. That’s what the kids came up with (and) it looks pretty close.”
Watkins said no individual student led the project.
“They took turns in the different categories,” he said. “They found themselves in being a lead in each of the things. Dylan (Todd) was really good at taking care of prepping the cedar we had that had to be debarked and burned.”
He said Cardreon took care of the other cedar and that Morales took to using a nail gun.
“Grigsby was instrumental in laying out and constructing the walls themselves,” he said. “There were leads in each direction, but they all worked together. They helped each other learn those same fields. It was a total collaborative piece.”
Watkins, who is retiring at the end of the 2021-22 school year, said he’s hoping the fourth trailer is done in June. Watkins is determined that trailer gets done and is working with the students in order to not get in the way of anything else they need to participate in, such as sports or other clubs.
“We schedule two to three hours after school,” he said. “(But) when we go online, we can’t do it.”
In addition to the students’ desire to take part in the project, they also get semester credit.
Watkins said the project is really positive for students who might struggle with the remote learning that schools have had to switch to throughout the past two years and one reason is they get to see the fruits of their labor.
“This is something they can buy into,” he said. “They see the results. It’s real life to them. They really like doing it. They can see how it could work into their future. When you’re not in class, it’s hard to get that total buy-in.”
Watkins compared the project to students who excel in sports and the active use of their physical selves.
“Some people need to build,” he said. “Some need to do something with their hands.”
Watkins said the project has been very much worth it for the kids and that it’s been fun for him.
“It’s been something I’ll see in the community as time goes on,” he said. “There’s always something I’m involved with. I’ve been doing projects for the 30-some years I’ve been here. This is just one more.”
