Grants clear way for CTE equipment

SHERBURN - Thanks to $7,500 grants from Compeer Financial's The Next ACRE program and Odell Wind Farms, Martin County West will be bringing their welding equipment up to speed.

The opportunities for grants were sent out to the schools via email, which grant writer and MCW ag teacher Stephanie Wohlhuter said is thankfully pretty common.

"We’re lucky to have a lot of Ag businesses that want to support programs to try to encourage kids to be involved," she said.

For these grants, Wohlhuter said she took out a couple of weeks in the summer, tucked herself away, and worked on grants, which they are now hearing back on. With these funds, Wohlhuter said they are leading to a project in the new building.

"A Maverick manufacturing pathway," she said. "Kids take a couple introductory classes, like an intro woods class, welding class, an intro to business and accounting class. Then they’ll take a capstone course where they make things in the shop that they’re going to sell as a business. They’re going to put together all of their business and shop knowledge.

For the Compeer Financial, Wohlhuter said they will likely use a majority of those funds on new welders, which cost around $3,500 a piece.

"We try to replace welders one every couple of years," she said. "It’s easy to get a little bit behind in that process, and then it gets a little bit overwhelming to start fresh with new equipment. Each welder is about $3,500, so this is definitely going to help replace some aging equipment and give us a fresh start, so we can get back on a normal replacement schedule."

These new welders will allow students to do Arc, MIG and TIG welding on the same machine, increasing efficiency.

"They’re not going to stand in line waiting for a certain kind of welder," Wohlhuter said. "They’re going to be able to switch from one aspect to another in the same booth. It’ll give kids that opportunity. We’re also going to have a lot more stations, so kids are going to be able to stay busier. There’ll be less downtime where they’re waiting to access something during class."

With up-to-date welders, it will also help keep them up-to-date with the active welding business community in the area.

"We have a lot of businesses in the area with opportunities for welders, so we’re trying to help fulfill a need," Wohlhuter said. "I don’t think they can ever find enough, you know, at places like AGCO and HitchDock. Trying to work together with Minnesota West a little bit too, because they have a welding program to get kids interested here, have them go on for a little bit of training, and then be able to start in the workforce in our local area."

Through the Odell Wind Farms grant, and some future grants, MCW will be going after a Star Lab plasma CNC cutter to go with their future Maverick Manufacturing pathway.

"We have a CNC machine, but it’s small and it was one of the first models that came out for schools," Wohlhuter said. "There’s a lot of bugs, and it’s showing its age. We tend to have a lot of problems with it. We’re excited about having the capability to cut things out that are bigger, but then also to teach kids on a different tool. I also think it’s going to help fulfill a community need. There’s all kinds of small welding projects that people need done that they don’t really have the tools for."

To be able to bring these implements to an area with plenty of need and growth opportunities in areas like welding that career and technical education can fill, Wohlhuter said the timing on these grants is perfect to upgrade to state-of-the-art equipment.

"The new building gives us an avenue for funding to be a little more appealing to people as well, because we’ll have the space to be able to do all of these things better than we currently can," she said. "With the referendum, there’s only a small chunk of the referendum dollars that go to actually outfitting a building. Most of it is to the brick and mortar of the building and the outside structures. If we can get grants for things like this, it helps with the overall project."

The new equipment will be ordered soon and placed in storage until the new school building is ready for the equipment to be installed.