L-N receives grant from American Welding Society Foundation

By Kylie Kinley

Lawrence-Nelson Community Schools has been selected to receive an American Welding Society Foundation Welding Workforce Grant in the amount of $25,000.00. This grant will allow Lawrence-Nelson to update their wooden welding booths to industry-standard booths with proper lighting, equipment and ventilation.

"The American Welding Society Foundation is proud to support the improvements to the welding lab at Lawrence-Nelson Community Schools. We look forward to seeing how the new welding booths enhance the students' skills and open up opportunities for them, both in agricultural settings and at local companies in need of skilled welders," said Monica Pfarr, executive director of the AWS Foundation.

Lawrence-Nelson students need to know how to weld to repair and improve machinery and equipment on their home farming operations, and to prepare them for careers that require welding experience. The current facility does not offer students a safe and realistic experience. With this grant, students will be able learn and practice welding at a higher level than Lawrence-Nelson can currently offer.

"Currently, we only have space for two welders to be going at one time, and the students spend more time accommodating the shortcomings of our equipment than learning and honing their welding skills," said Adam Theer, FFA advisor and welding instructor.

The primary goal of this welding equipment project is to prepare students for careers in the welding industry and give them the skills to confidently weld on the farm, around the ranch, or in the shop. Secondly, Lawrence-Nelson wants to ensure the safety of all their students. With this grant, we can use the money to supply the shop with new welding booths that are up to date, standard for the industry, and are much safer. Third, we want to create competitive welders for FFA contests. Being a great welder in the shop classroom and on the farm is a good skill, but being able to compete at a high level in FFA contests would inspire students to practice and study.

Students in Kylie Kinley's ag leadership class helped research and write content for this grant in Fall 2023. Kinley teaches ag education and English at Lawrence-Nelson.

"To me, ag leadership is learning how to use your personal strengths and skills to better develop and advocate for rural communities. Volunteering for rural community groups, writing grants, and keeping strong records can help you be a better leader and therefore a better member of the ag community," Kinley said. "I am grateful the students took this project seriously, and I'm excited to see what they learn and build with this new equipment."

Project ideas from students include putting new floors in stock trailers, building custom drop hitches, welding 12 foot feed bunks to benefit a cow-calf operation, making a custom flatbed to help with the family haying business, and constructing ATV ramps to make hauling equipment easier and safer for irrigation season and for checking pasture.

Superior Industries of Superior and Reinke Manufacturing of Deshler wrote letters of support for the Lawrence-Nelson grant application.

"This is a much needed resource for the area," said Chris Roth, president of Reinke Manufacturing, Inc. "We could hire 20 plus welders right now if we could find them."

"Being a rural area that is focused on agriculture, having the ability to weld properly would be valuable in many career paths," said TJ Morris, owner of Superior Industries, LLC.

Lawrence-Nelson will start ordering and installing the new equipment in Fall 2024.

"We are grateful the AWS Foundation believes in our vision and our students' potential," Kinley said. "The students helped write this grant, and we plan on them having a large role in the design and construction of the new welding booth space, just like they've played major roles in our chicken coop construction and specialty crop plot farming."

Founded in 1989, the AWS Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the American Welding Society. As a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization, they rely on the generosity of their partners who understand the value of welding and its role in building a better, stronger economy. The AWS Foundation awards roughly $2 million in scholarships and grants to future leaders.

Lawrence-Nelson's ag program has now earned $29,000 in grant money in the past 12 months: $2,000 for the chicken coop project from Farm Credit Services of America, $2,000 from the Center for Rural Affairs for the specialty crop project, and now $25,000 from the American Welding Foundation for the welding equipment project.

One of the hurdles for the success of Lawrence-Nelson's welding program is the literal track hurdle acting as a strut in the mig welding booth.

Welding rod storage is currently an repurposed card catalogue cabinet.

Light in the welding booths is not up to industry standards and makes visibility while welding poor.