Recently, students by the names of Spencer Briggs-Hale (10), Hunter Sires (10), and John Ives (10) contributed something to the Manitou Springs community. The boys created a fence on display in front of the concrete couch in Manitou.

Concrete Couch is an organization that takes old “junk” and turns it into new pieces of artwork. Sires, Briggs-Hale and Ives spent time once a week for seven weeks learning how to wield tools and build the fence.

Steve Wood, who is the director of Concrete Couch, asked the high school’s art department, including Ms. Gocinski, if anyone would be interested in a welding project. The three boys volunteered and decided to start working at the Makerspace in Manitou’s Venue 515.

“I wanted students to get involved in creating permanent artwork within the community,” said Gocinski.

“We wanted to know how to do welding. Thanks to the wood shop class, it was a pretty familiar activity with similar skills,” said Briggs-Hale. Briggs-Hale goes to the Concrete Couch after school on Tuesdays.

All of the boys said they would definitely do something like this again. Sires even said that he could do something like his in a career, possibly even welding.