The St. Louis Shark Tooth Woodshop handed out military plaques and took them to the St. Louis American Legion Nov. 14, 2023, to commemorate Veterans Day. Dozens of veterans received these plaques, and there are still a few more to be handed out.
The woodshop, led by Mr. Maxwell, crafted plaques with the laser engraver. The students had to sand and route the plaques before Maxwell could put the finishing touches on them. Maxwell stated, “My third hour class designed the plaques. The final design came from Brayden Bloom. Each plaque took about 35 minutes in the laser. It took about 15 minutes to sand. So each plaque took about an hour to create from start to finish and we made over 200 plaques.” With that being said, 200 hours were dedicated to crafting these plaques. Maxwell emphasized the importance his third hour played in this project. He stated, “Shoutout to my third hour. This was their project!”
Woodshop students, Brook Campbell and Bloom designed a particularly special plaque. Campbell mentioned, “Brayden and I designed a plaque for Ms. BG’s dad. I’m honored to do something so special. Also, I love seeing their faces when we handed them out to the Veterans. It was really awesome to do that.” Similarly to Campbell, Maxwell stated, “I would say seeing the students create and handing out the plaques [was my favorite part]. They were able to show their appreciation to people.”
The plaques have been a staple for Veteran’s Day for a few years now, but the woodshop isn’t going to stop there. Maxwell remarked, “We have done it for three years now, and next year we are wanting to do something different. I feel like these flags hit our peak because they were such good quality. We might make Christmas ornaments with the branches of the military and have breakfast with it.”
The plaques took time, effort, and above all, attention to detail to create. In a few short weeks, the woodshop will be delivering more of these plaques to the VFW.
