Carpentry students donate time and skill to municipal project

A handful of students in Central Pennsylvania Institute of Science and Technology’s carpentry program have spent the majority of May building chairs and two picnic tables that will help complete a municipal project for the Borough of Lilly in Cambria County. Instructor Marty Craine said he often does volunteer work for Lilly, his hometown. This year, he was approached again, but instead of doing the work himself, he turned it into a class project with six high school students from the Bald Eagle and Bellefonte area school districts. “The last couple years they have received grants from the state to develop a recreational sports complex,” Craine said. “There’s a main building with pavilions, and I built them this big bar that overlooks the baseball field, but there was no seating.” That’s when he took the project to his secondary carpentry class. The chairs made by the students will be picked up from municipal representatives on May 24 and installed at their complex to accompany the bar area Craine constructed for them. “It’s cool to work hard and then be able to show off your work,” junior Vance Alterio said. He was among fellow Bellefonte Area students Jason King, Garrett Kuhn, Morgan Doroschenko and Jarrett Voyzey, and Josh Zink from BEA, who participated in the project.