A pair of war plaques honoring Cony High School students that were unveiled last month are now on display thanks to students at the Capital Area Technical Center.
The large plaques, honoring Cony students who died in World Wars I and II, were hung Tuesday in the high school’s food court after students in the technical center’s machine and welding program crafted brackets to hold them.
“They did a good job,” said instructor Darryl Nadeau. “They were happy with how it came out.”
The plaques, which had been on display at Cony’s old location, the flatiron building on Cony Circle, were stored in a closet at the attached technical center in 2006 when the school moved to its current location on Pierce Drive. There the plaques remained until last year, when former student Kelsey Rohman, who heard about the plaques during a class discussion, helped hunt them down and spearheaded a project to have them restored. The refurbished plaques were unveiled in November during a schoolwide presentation.
However, Nadeau said, only one of the plaques had a bracket that allowed it to be hung. Lead custodian Keith Stockmar approached Nadeau to ask him and his students to fabricate an identical bracket so both plaques could be displayed.
“They came to me and asked if we could make them,” Nadeau recalled. “I said, ‘Sure.'”
Two of Nadeau’s second-year students, Colt Seigars and Mathew Musselman, took on the project, which included drawing up a print and crafting the part.
“They had a few days to make them,” Nadeau said.
He had not heard of the work to restore the plaques until approached by Stockmar, but Nadeau was glad his students were able to help with the project.
“I thought that was real nice,” he said. “It’s really nice to appreciate veterans.”
The project proved a good learning experience for the students. Nadeau said working in a small machine shop often requires the ability to fabricate a duplicate of an existing part. As it did for the plaque brackets, the process often requires inspecting the part and creating a drawing that’s used to fashion the new part.
Nadeau said his students learn by fixing a number of things for the school from broken chairs to snowblowers.
“There are a lot of things that go on besides my curriculum,” he said. “It’s a good experience. It excites them.”
Craig Crosby — 621-5642
Twitter: @CraigCrosby4
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