A group of Salem-area teenagers from Salem’s Career Technical Education Center have won national recognition for building a western-style saloon playhouse from scratch. The students, all juniors and seniors, worked twice a week for five months to design, plan, and build the saloon.
Project Details
The idea for the project came from an early brainstorming session with their construction teacher, Curtis Fisher. The students refined the saloon design, building two prototypes leading up to the regional competition. The finished, 70-square-foot structure featured a crooked ‘Saloon’ sign, classic swinging doors, rustic wood siding, and a jail inside.
The students learned valuable lessons about communication, collaboration, and work ethic. Their teacher, Curtis Fisher, said, ‘You’d think they would learn about how to build stuff, but really they learn about how to communicate, how to collaborate together on a team, how to adapt once the ideas changed … they learned work ethic and showing up for your team.’
National Recognition
The state victory put the team’s saloon under a national spotlight, having it put to a public vote alongside around 120 projects from states like California, Texas, and Indiana. The team won the People’s Choice Award after school had already let out for the summer.
The team will get a plaque commemorating their win, which Fisher plans to hang in his classroom. The students’ Saloon was hauled by trailer to its new home at Butte Creek Scout Ranch, a summer camp in Scotts Mills, where it will be used out in the ranch’s Old West neighborhood.
Original reporting: Salem Reporter — read the source article.
