Students build shed for Sisters Folk Festival

The Sisters Folk Festival has been bursting at the seams trying to store all of the equipment needed to run a year-round cultural arts organization. With one 12-by-12-foot storage shed behind the Sisters Art Works building, it became a real challenge for staff to get to anything easily.

The festival needed a second storage shed. With a little creative thought and the generosity of Mike Ilg, owner of Investors Lending Group of Salem, the new storage shed has become a reality. Ilg wanted to help the Sisters Folk Festival and he wanted to do it in a way that would benefit as many people as possible. A real advocate for children, Ilg especially wanted to include them.

To make that work, the Sisters Folk Festival partnered with Tony Cosby, the Woodworking and Construction teacher at Sisters High School.

"Using the high school students to build it and getting the price we got was a way for us to support the community and the community to support us," said Executive Director Brad Tisdel. "With donations from the Sisters Jazz Festival after they closed, we found it necessary to have an additional storage shed for our infrastructure needs."

The Sisters High School construction class had built part of a house for Hayden Homes which included a storage shed similar to the one needed by the Festival. The construction class framed, sheet-rocked and did the window installations for the Hayden Home, giving them valuable, hands-on construction experience.

"The students were ready to take on a job on their own," said Cosby. "I challenged them to take on the whole project themselves and they did extremely well."

Cosby assigned two foremen, who had been in the construction class before, to oversee the work. They did everything from ordering materials and organizing work crews to building it.

"I wanted them to complete the project before the end of the trimester and they exceeded my expectations," said Cosby.

All of the students in the construction class had been in other classes taught by Cosby. The Sisters Folk Festival shed was an opportunity for them to put their skills to use.

"There's a natural progression that begins with the woodshop class, then they move on to AutoCad and, finally, helping to build a house," said Cosby.

Watching these students thrive and successfully complete their project is what Cosby's classes are all about.

"There's a real feeling of accomplishment to see this done so well," said Cosby. In the end it took the class eight hours to complete the shed. There's a plaque on the door dedicated to Mike Ilg's English Springer Spaniel, Bailey.

"One of the kids got on the Internet and found a dog like Mike Ilg's dog. It was a big deal to create an image that looked like the dog," said Cosby.

Completing a successful job like this gives students a sense of confidence in themselves that can carry over into other endeavors they chose to undertake. Ilg is pleased to see such a positive outcome from his donation. There's now room to spread out and get better organized for the Sisters Folk Festival; which in turn will benefit even more kids in the Sisters schools through the Americana Project.

"I enjoy working with the Sisters Folk Festival; they do so much good for the community and in particular for the young adults who are aspiring to sharpen their skills," said Ilg.

In today's economy, donations make a huge difference for many organizations.

"We are fortunate to have Mike and the kids support us," said Tisdel. "It makes us more efficient for the many year-round events the Sisters Folk Festival is responsible for."

Editor's note: Katy Yoder is the events organizer for the Sisters Folk Festival.