Holiday houses provide cheer, funds for projects

Benton High School senior Grant Steed works on one of the playhouses in the shop at the school. The class is selling the playhouses to raise money for supplies for the classroom.
Benton High School senior Grant Steed works on one of the playhouses in the shop at the school. The class is selling the playhouses to raise money for supplies for the classroom.

— Students in a shop class at Benton High School hope to add to the holiday spirit this season by building playhouses for the children of Saline County.

“We started building playhouses in the beginning for the [Saline County] Courthouse and downtown Benton. Then eventually, we moved on to sell the houses to raise money for materials for the class,” instructor Jamie Jones said.

“We have built them for CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) as well, and it just carried over as a good project for us to do as a class,” Jones said. “It raises money for us to be able to build more stuff and get experience in carpentry.”

Jones said the class sells the playhouses for the cost of the wood.

“We just turn around and buy more materials and lumber to build more,” he said. “It is a great project for the beginning carpenters to learn the phases of housebuilding.”

Each house usually takes about three weeks to build, and this semester, the class has built six houses and sold four of them for $400 each.

“In years past, we were building storage sheds and things like that,” Jones said, “but they don’t sell as good as the playhouses.

“With CASA and the courthouse houses, it sparked the idea that these will sell a lot easier. They ended up being as close to building real houses as you can get — we are just downsizing them a little bit.”

Senior Sean Thornton said one of most significant things he has learned from building the houses this semester is the technique of developing collaboration among his classmates.

“Each person brings a different tool or skill for a specific project, and it takes multiple people with different skills to build these houses,” Thornton said.

He also said he gets a lot of experience from the class, including framing and putting shingles on the roofs.

Senior Tanner Houpt said some of the skills learned can be used later in life, especially what he called “soft skills,” which include communication.

“Even if you aren’t going to be a carpenter, you can uses these skills,” Houpt said.

“The goal for a lot of [the students] is to go into engineering or architecture, and this gives them a base of knowing how the houses are put together, utilizing all the tools that you need,” Jones said. “This is a great base for them to learn these skills, because not knowing how the houses are put together, you aren’t going to be a good architect or whatever they pursue. … We aren’t making any profit from these houses; the money just goes back into the materials.”

Jones said he is also thankful for the support he has received from Curt Barger, the principal at Benton High School.

“Maybe a lot of principals wouldn’t be as supportive, but he has been very supportive of us and allows us to do the things we do in here,” Jones said.

He said being able to offer this type of class at the high school and not at a junior college allows students who are in sports, band or other extracurricular activities to remain on campus and not have to travel to a college for such a class.

“It makes it available to those who need to stay at school during the day and take this class at school and still be able to participate in their activities,” Jones said.

The buildings are 8 feet by 6 feet, with a ceiling height of 6 feet. He said if a client preorders a house, the students could possibly put electricity in it, but most houses do not come with electricity.

“We have been building these and selling them to individuals, but we do have more sales around this time of the year,” Jones said. “The playhouses seem to sell a lot better at Christmastime because they want ideas of what to get their children.

“The sales definitely slow down in the spring.”

Jones said the houses are built to last.

“We don’t paint them. Most people want to paint a house the color they want, so if they are painted properly, they should last for many years,” Jones said. “We have students who have been on a waiting list to get into the construction fundamentals class, and I think it is due to the success we have had with building the houses and the success we have had with students coming out of Benton High School straight into the construction field.

“There is a lack of construction workers, and I think students are starting to realize that and take advantage of it.”

Jones got a degree in industrial technology from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway in 1997 and has built houses on the side.

“I’ve been involved with construction quite a bit,” he said.

“It has been a great satisfaction seeing [former students] work in the field after graduation,” Jones said. “We’ve got quite a few, and a big part of it is because we offered this class here at Benton High School.

“Not everyone is going to be a doctor, lawyer or businessman and go into those types of fields. But they can go into the construction field and make good money and have a good living, and I feel like this class helps push them in that direction.”

Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.

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