Session: Young Women’s Design + Building Institute, summer 2024
Builders: 30 high school students
Materials: redwood 2x4s, chop saw, drill and impact drivers, wood screws, speed square, measuring tape, pencil, bar clamps, orbital sanders, band saw, jig saw
Description: In this summer’s 2-week session of Young Women’s Design + Building Institute, our high school students built 12 planter boxes and 8 Adirondack chairs for our nonprofit client Petaluma Bounty. These planter boxes and Adirondack chairs will be part of La Tercera Community Garden, a Petaluma Bounty-run public garden in East Petaluma. After years of neglect, this particular garden is getting a Girls Garage “glow-up” with brand new 4×10 planter boxes and Adirondack chairs for when community members need to take a break or eat a snack in the shade. Building the planter boxes was an excellent warm-up for our high school students to learn how to measure, cut, and assemble lumber, using power tools like the chop saw, drill and impact driver as well as speed squares and bar clamps. Once the planters were assembled, the students split into small groups to tackle the Adirondack chairs, a construction project that was more complex and included using both the band saw and the jig saw. By the end of the week, instructor Augusta Sitney even challenged the students to design foot rests for the chairs without any plans or oversight, and the teenage builders rose to the occasion!