A welcome site
City, student welders collaborate on projects
A new welcome sign is a tribute to Yuma’s historic river days and a testament to the success of collaboration between the city and local high schools, officials said.
“With this particular project, one of our primary interests was involving high school students, students that would create interesting things,” Clean and Beautiful Commissioner David Psolka said.
The sign, which is more 3-D welding sculpture and metalwork than two-dimensional traditional sign, is the third in a series of beautification projects in conjunction with the city and vocational welding teachers in the area, said Lisa Anderson, assistant superintendent at the Yuma Union High School District.
The model-sized paddle boat and surrounding metal sculptures were built by advanced vocational welding students from Gila Ridge High School, Gila Ridge senior Kennedy Schutte noted. The project took about five months to complete and is an homage to the paddlewheel boats that once traversed the Colorado River, featuring intricacies such as silhouetted travelers in some of the boat’s windows, a paddlewheel on the boat’s stern, and a frog and crane sitting next to the boat, Schutte said.
The City provided the landscaping materials while the students completed all of the welding, mostly from scrap metal.
“It’s to give back to the community and
beautify Yuma,” Schutte said. “But it’s also it’s kind of cool because we live right next to the Colorado River. It flows right through Yuma and everything. It’s a big part of Yuma life.”
Gila Ridge welding instructor Michael Young said 29 of his best students worked on the project, 24 advanced students and five of his best level one students.
“They are the best of the best,” Lori Honeycutt, director of career and technical education for the high school district, said about the Gila Ridge students.
The project was unveiled by 26 students who were involved with the work on Thursday morning as part of National Public Works Week.
“We’re extremely proud of our students and their dedication to the city,” said Linda Collins, vice chair (and longest member) of the city’s Clean and Beautiful Commission, through which the schools are partnering to build the structures.
“It’s been encouraging that the teachers involved in all of the projects have presented ideas to the students, and incorporated students’ ideas, like ‘what can we do and how can we do it?’” Psolka said. “They’ve functioned more as a resource person, rather than a director. This is studentbuilt. The community can be very proud of what our kids can do.”
The project is also a testament to the city’s dedication to advance education opportunities in the community, said Kevin Imes, superintendent of the Southwest Technical Educational District of Yuma (STEDY).
“It’s so cool that the City of Yuma is letting high schoolers be a part of the City of Yuma,” said Kevin Imes, superintendent of the Southwest Technical Educational District of Yuma (STEDY).
Pointing to the sign, which is situated on a “gateway” into the city just to the west of the east-bound exit ramp off of Interstate 8 and 16th Street, he said, “In 20 years, they’ll drive by this and say ‘I did that.’”