FRENCH SETTLEMENT — Inside a French Settlement High School carpentry class, students are building more than wood projects. They’re building hope for a family in need. The woodworking class came together to build a deck and show support for a paras’ father who was seriously injured in an accident.
Accident and recovery
“On September 22, he was at work, and pipes fell on him,” Heather Watts, whose dad was injured, explained. “When they did, it crushed his bottom portion of his spine. It paralyzed him from the waist down.
Watts explained her dad has feeling in his right leg, but can’t control or feel his right foot. “He is in physical therapy at Lady of the Lake right now, and for him to come home, he’s gonna have to have all kind of equipment,” Watts said. To accommodate that equipment, he’ll need a ramp and a landing deck.
Watts’ father’s insurance company said it would pay for the wheelchair ramp, but not the landing deck. That’s where French Settlement High School comes in. And it’s not the first time French Settlement students have stepped up to help their own.
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Stepping up to help
French Settlement High Principal John Chewing asked Watts how her dad was doing one day in the teacher’s lounge, and learned about the deck problem. He asked her for details about what they’d need and jumped into action. “I was like, ‘Well, we can do it,'” Chewing said.
Principal Chewing called his friend, and the school’s carpentry teacher Shain Pecou and told him about the situation. “I said, ‘I’ve been trying to think of some way to help them’.”
The solution: for some of Pecou’s carpentry students to build a deck. “We just figured it would be a great service project to help out,” Pecou said. “I checked to see which students’ have schedules would line up with being able to go and install it. So I chose those students to build it.”
“That’s the kind of heart these boys have”
“We got it all put together, framed some stuff here on site,” Pecou said. “Then we left school. The school covered for me and got a sub. We left school and went on site where we built the deck.”
The group had to make a few modifications to their plans, because Watts asked if they could put the old steps back leading up to the deck, but they didn’t fit.
“The boys decided that that wasn’t good enough. So they’re like, ‘Hey, we have the lumber. Let’s build the steps,'” Pecou said.
“A couple of them came back to the shop, picked up more material, and came back on site. We went ahead and built the steps and added the handrails to it, which was a little bit extra. But that’s kind of heart of these boys,” Pecou said. “They just couldn’t leave it like that.”
“It’s a pretty good feeling knowing that we did all this, knowing we weren’t going to get anything out of it, but somebody else would,” Jackson Chewing, one of the students, said. “Just doing it because, and knowing it was for good cause.”
“They have gone above and beyond”
“When I found out about this, all I could do was cry,” Watts said.” “From the bottom of my heart, I couldn’t be more grateful. They have stepped up and have taken a huge burden off our shoulders, and I don’t think they realize how big of a burden that was for us. They have gone above and beyond for someone they didn’t know.”
Watts said her dad, who is also fighting cancer, is the type of person to give you the shirt off his back and ask for nothing in return.
“He wanted me to let everybody know how thankful he is, how grateful he is for everything,” Watts said. “This man’s been through a lot. He between the cancer and this. He’s never given up hope. He’s never lost his faith.”
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