SEQUIM — Sequim High School students in Bill Seabolt’s welding class have been busy building two-dimensional steel Roosevelt elk silhouettes that resemble the well-known sculptures that welcome motorists to town.
And the miniatures are hoped to turn into scholarship cash.
“Our goal is to have them displayed throughout town before we auction them off at our [scholarship] fundraiser on April 18,” said Lisa Cronin, fundraiser chairwoman for the Gardiner Garden Club.
“Seabolt agreed to have his advanced class work on these. We purchased the metal, and the kids began tracing them out on paper.
“There was a lot of work involved, as they had to project the image onto a wall and get the sketch right for the ultimate tracing onto metal.”
The students then “moved onto cutting the metal and smoothing the edges,” Cronin said. “The final stage is welding stands to the hooves of the elk.”
Altogether, the class is building eight 36-inch elk silhouettes and 12 of the 24-inch silhouettes.
Each piece has a serial number and will become collectors’ items because no more will be built by this year’s welding class, Seabolt said.
The base price for each elk silhouette will be about $50.
The United Service Organizations-themed fundraising dinner will be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Gardiner Community Center, 980 Old Gardiner Road, east of Sequim.
In addition to the silhouette auction, the event will feature big band music and activities including a raffle and silent auction for gift certificates and items donated by local businesses and private parties.
Tickets for the event are $15 each.
Items up for grabs include airplane rides and a dinner with Cronin’s stepmother Lynda Day George — a well known actress who appeared in multiple television series, including “Mission Impossible” in the early 1970s.
The Gardiner Club is also seeking additional businesses or private parties interested in donating items for the raffle and silent action.
The Gardiner Club has given out about $75,000 in scholarships to Sequim High School students over the past 15 years and hopes to raise about $10,000 this year to give to local students.
“The scholarships have been given in multiple categories — mostly agriculture and farming — though it is about the student and what they say in the books they provide,” Cronin said.
“At this point, the seniors have already finished the scholarship books and turned them in. We will be doing the same thing next year and seniors can apply through the career counselor, Mitzi Sanders.
“We believe education is important in our town and want to help provide that opportunity for our local students.”
Cronin and her stepmother are also providing a scholarship of up to $2,500 out of pocket to a student or students for welding in the name of Cronin’s father, Doug Cronin, who died of cancer in December 2010.
Seabolt is pleased his students are helping to raise scholarship money for their peers while learning life skills.
“I always encourage the kids to do community type projects,” he said.
“They get a chance to work with new metal that they don’t have to buy, and it is kind of priming them for business.
“They build something, it goes away. And so it is just really good. Some of the seniors are needing community project time, so it also helps them” achieve that goal.
Denny Langmack, a senior in the welding class who has helped craft about 12 elk silhouettes, was also proud to be helping a good cause.
“That is the best reason to build them, really,” he said, adding it is nice to help his fellow students go to college.
Bolt is looking forward to seeing the elk silhouettes displayed around town.
“It is good that the kids can come back and say, ‘I built that,’” he said.
For more information on the scholarship fundraiser, email lcroningardenclub@gmail.com or phone 360-797-3900.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
