Session: Young Women’s Design + Building Institute, Summer 2021

Builders: 29 participants

Materials: 3/4″ A/C plywood, exterior paint, casters, miter saw, circular tracksaw, drill, impact driver, corkboard, magnetic strips

Description: Over the course of 2 weeks in our Young Women’s Design and Building Institute, 29 girls and gender-expansive youth built a library space for Ursula Sherman Village, the transitional housing shelter run by our community client BOSS (Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency). Under the tutelage of instructors Emily Pilloton-Lam, Augusta Sitney, and Allison Oropallo, our fearless builders learned how to safely use different power tools—such as the miter saw, circular saw with an attacked Kreg track, drill, and impact driver—which they used to construct the bookshelves and book benches. Each participant used tools from their very own toolbox (from our Fearless100 fundraiser) to build the shelves. After building and assembling the displays at Girls Garage, our teens and instructors traveled on-site to clean out and re-organize the space to best fit the children’s learning needs. At the end of each week, our teens proudly presented the new library space in to the employees, volunteers, and residents at BOSS, including a chirpy toddler who immediately grabbed a children’s book off the Girls Garage bookshelf to read!