Keep scrolling after Scott's write up to see photos of the new sign!

There's an obvious trepidation about starting any new school year. This year, there's the all-encompassing pandemic of course, but also new students, new faculty, and new projects. This year I was pleased to begin my year collaborating with both old and new faculty on a new project: the official LEED-certified sign for Orchard's new Fred Lorenz Makerspace. 

 

This was a joint effort by Marketing and Communications Director James Layne, Orchard's new Outdoor Education Teacher Jason Peterson, and myself. James had a vision for the sign to nicely capture and highlight the school's commitment to the environment as well as Head of School Dr. Sherri Helvie's vision that Orchard lead by example. In this case, as a LEED-certified building, Orchard committed to construction that met the highest environmentally ethical building standards. 

 

James' aesthetic vision for the sign was shared with me so I could begin to work on the carpentry portion. During this process, I happened to be meeting with Jason. While I was certifying him with the tools in the large workshop, I quickly learned that he is a skilled carpenter, amongst many other talents. What started as a simple tool training session turned into a joint effort on making/hanging the sign as a way of testing out the tools. 

 

It's things like this that ease the nervous energy a new school year brings. We finished this project before the first day of school, so before we even had students in the building we were already collaborating to improve and honor the school's successes. 

 

My hope for everyone is that their year starts off with a similar feeling of being grateful for new connections, working together while highlighting each others' strengths, and realizing you are right where you need to be.

Scott Weaver
Makerspace Coordinator