By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The rebuild continues at the First Southern Baptist Church at 19th and Harrison Street in Great Bend following the July 16 wind and hail storm that ripped a large section of roof from the church. Travis Straub is a member of the church and, as the woodworking teacher at Great Bend High School, was asked to build a few items. Straub used that opportunity to get his class involved.
"I don't think they were anticipating me using students to do it but the projects I got asked to do lined up perfectly for what we do here at the high school," he said. "I used my third-level class. We mass-produce a product, and we were done with that product, so the timing of it was perfect, too."
Students Corbyn Causey, Zach Davis, Caden Guesnier, and Blake Streck helped construct an 8 x 10-foot sound booth using 2x4s with typical wall construction and a floor. The class used lumber removed from the church's former sanctuary on the second floor that had been removed.
A steel beam was added to the north end of the church to reinforce the walls and ceiling against future wind events. The group used old floor joists from the second floor of the church to create faux beams that are 1.5 inches thick, 18 inches wide, and 12 feet long to cover the steel so they matched other beams in the facility.
"They were 2x10s," Straub said. "We ripped them to two inches wide, then basically glued the faces of those together. It took 12 strips of that to get one beam. I used a gallon of glue (Wednesday) to glue all those together. It was a lot of glue and clamps."
The group also made trim pieces for the peek of the ceiling from which lights and ceiling fans can be hung. While the work was completed at GBHS, Straub was able to take the students to the church to see where their work would be featured during class on Monday.