Since the start of the second semester, Brooke Wehrbein’s fourth period welding class project has been more important than just a grade. Auburn High School (AHS) students have been designing, planning and building a much needed hose rack for the Auburn Volunteer Fire Department (AVFD).
Derek Bohling, a volunteer firefighter in Auburn met with AHS principal Scott Siegel at the end of the first school semester, asking if they would be willing to take on the project.
“We needed a hose rack and we looked online and there’s many manufacturers that make a hose rack,” said Bohling. “One of the members had a thought that, let’s approach the high school and see what they can do. If the students can do a project,” Once the school took on the project, firefighters spent around a month working with the welding students to design a hose rack that would work best and fit the dimensions of the available space. Firefighters brought different hoses down to the school to help make sure everything was accurate. Colton Hauptman and Jake Franklund were among the students working on the blueprints, using the 3D modeling program SketchUp on the school computers to design the 10 foot long rack.
