By Kim Elzinga
Special to The PREVIEW
The Pagosa Area Builders Advisory Committee (PABAC) will host a dog house auction on Friday, May 18, at 5 p.m. at Shooters and Shenanigans, 23 Pike Drive. The San Juan Mountain Boys will provide live entertainment.
Tickets for the event can be purchased online at BuildPagosa.org. Ticket prices are $20 online and $25 at the door.
The 10 dog houses up for auction were built exclusively by students from the first building trades 1 class at Pagosa Springs High School. The 32 students in the class took the project from blueprints to final construction, learning valuable building skills and safety protocols along the way.
Each dog house is personalized by signatures of the students who constructed it. Over $200 in donated materials were used to build each of the sturdy, insulated, solid dog houses. All proceeds will fund future building trades classes at the high school. Dog houses can be viewed at several supportive businesses around the community.
“The dog houses are the culmination of everything the students have learned over the course of the class,” said instructor Torry Hessman.
“It’s an excellent first project for the students because they are basically learning every phase of building a house, just in miniature scale. With what they’ve learned already in this building trades 1 class, they are well on their way to having the skills necessary to become eligible for summer and full-time employment with local contractors. It’s great for the kids and also addresses a need in the community,” Hessman said.
PABAC, through BuildPagosa.org, is assisting the Archuleta School District to develop a vocational-technical program by initiating the building trades 1 class, which is the first one at the high school this year, and adding building trades 2, woodworking 1 and architectural product and furniture design next school year. Several students have already expressed an interest in the building trades classes for next school year and many from this year’s class will continue their training in building trades 2 in the fall.
