Preston high school students build waste bin boxes for community initiative

Students from Preston High School hard at work building their storage boxes. (CTV News/Karis Mapp)

A group of high school students in Waterloo Region got a lesson in community giving this week while sharpening their classroom woodworking skills.

Eight construction students from Preston High School spent Tuesday at the Grand Valley Construction Association (GVCA) building storage boxes designed for the region’s new waste and composting carts.

The initiative is a hands-on partnership between the construction association and Habitat for Humanity Waterloo Region.

“It’s an aesthetic thing. Something to put your new garbage bins in for the side of the house that looks nice, keeps them dry, but also has fundraising support for us,” said Philip Mills, CEO of the local Habitat for Humanity chapter.

The storage units are available for purchase at $300 each, or $275 per unit when buying a pair. All proceeds go directly toward Habitat for Humanity’s affordable housing builds in the region.

The student participants said the build provided a meaningful way to apply their shop skills outside school walls.

“If people don’t have space, they can have a space to put (the bins) where animals or critters don’t get into their garbage, causing more mess for the community,” said Grade 12 student Liam Wynne.

Classmate Daichi Cleve, also in Grade 12, agreed.

“It feels nice not to have to do something for a mark or myself, but more for the community and helping out,” Cleve said.

With many of the participants preparing for graduation, project organizers noted that real-world exposure is critical for students considering a career path in skilled labor.

“It’s easy for myself, a guidance counselor or a parent to say, ‘You should go to the trades,’” said GVCA president Jeff MacIntyre. “But when you actually touch stuff and get to do things, it’s pretty cool.”

The youth participating in the workshop are enrolled in Preston High School’s Specialist High School Major (SHSM) program, an Ontario ministry approved framework that focuses learning on specific economic sectors.

“It’s tied to different economic sectors in the province. Today is our construction sector,” said Adrian Houwer, the SHSM lead teacher at Preston.

Organizers say the program is open to more than just students, offering local businesses a unique team-building opportunity.

“Corporations can come and build for a day as a team-building opportunity. So they get to build together and it gets to support the work that we’re doing,” Mills said.

The GVCA developed the building sessions as a way to unlock resources that usually sit idle.

“We had tools here because of the trades that we’re in and we decided to create a program whereby we could activate those tools instead of them just being on display. Let’s get people to try them,” MacIntyre said.

Organizers say they plan to continue the workshop builds as long as local demand for the waste bin boxes remains steady.