Welding Training Center Breaks Ground in Mt. Angel

On Wednesday, April 26th, our Board of Commissioners was thrilled to take part in the groundbreaking ceremony of a welding training center for high school students in Mt. Angel. In addition to witnessing the event, we had the immense honor of presenting the Mt. Angel Community Foundation with $20,000 towards the project.

Below is an update from Lori Pavlicek, President of the Mt. Angel Community Foundation to tell you more about how this project came to be and what impact it will have within Mt. Angel and beyond...

The Mount Angel Community Foundation was founded by a group of local people who wanted to raise money for scholarships for our local High School. We raised over $850,000 for 5 seniors each year to apply for a $1500 per year, 4 year scholarship. The last few years we have been getting students asking if we had any 2-year scholarships available for a Trade school. Unfortunately, we had to say no.

This past summer our foundation raised over $110,000 at a fundraiser to help start, and fund, two 2-year scholarships. Our goal is $160,000, and when that is met, we will have two $1500 scholarships available for a 2-year trade school. A highlight of the evening, Gary Epping of the Larry and Jennette Epping Foundation, announced they would put up $20,000 so we could have two $1000 scholarships for 4 years while we are still actively going out and getting to our $160,000 goal.

Ten years ago, the local school board decided that a weight room was more important than a shop classroom, so they sold all the tools and changed the shop building to a weight room for the athletes. That lasted until 4 years ago when the district passed a new bond and a new weight room was built near the locker rooms; which left the 6000 sq ft building empty. Working with the school district, a small group of us went out and fundraised enough money to buy all new tools and welding equipment to be able to offer a welding class. After 52 years, the shop space and the new CTE scholarships has created renewed interest in the trades; last year there was two students signed up for the welding class, and this year there are sixteen.

Although the shop space is working out great, it is inadequate for a welding class. Currently, students can’t be welding while other students are using any other shop tools. Seeing this as a problem, we determined that we would need to raise $65,000 for an addition and approximately $12,000 of in-kind donations to make this work. By mid-December the funds were raised, plans were drawn, and a local Commercial

Builder, The Grant Company, was on board to help. When we were ready to apply for the permits, we believed the sprinkler system was going to be adequate, but we found out from an inspection of the 50-year-old existing sprinkler system, it wasn’t. Now we need to go back in and upgrade and change the size of the pipes to the existing sprinkler system, a $20,000 extra cost we were not expecting.

We are asking for your help, so we can start the High Schools new welding room. Our goal was to start by March 1st so it will be ready to go for the 2023 school year.

The current donations of money and in-kind commitments are:

• $25,000 Gem Equipment, a large metal Fabricating company located in Mt. Angel.

• $25,000 from Mountain West

• $7500 each from 2 local Family Foundations in Mt. Angel

• Labor and concrete for the foundation from Eberle Concrete and Riverbend

• Labor to frame from Fred Eichler Construction

• Labor to install the roofing and siding from Tom Riedman Construction from Mt. Angel

• Lumber and Money from Frank Lumber of Lyons and Withers Lumber

• Discounts from Northside Electric, Taylor Metal, Westside Drywall, Jet Heating, and others

As you can tell we reached out and exhausted our local community. We have gotten this far and don’t want to give up. With your help we can finish what we started. If you decide you can help us, the checks can be written out to either Mt. Angel Community Foundation or John F Kennedy High School, Welding Room Fund.

Thank You for Your Consideration,

Lori Pavlicek, President The Mt. Angel Community Foundation