The Industrial Arts Auction at the California Mid-State Fair was low on inventory, but the selling prices sailed through the roof of the livestock barn.
Kerrigan Jensen of Atascadero high school built a coffee table featuring a metal American flag on a wood base. Her coffee table sold for $10,000 to a family from Creston.
A picnic table brought $7,000 dollars.
A dog house went for $4,500.
Samantha Buie, a Paso Robles high school senior built a barbecue. She and other welding students produced 15 of the barbecues. The barbecue’s the brain child of PRHS welding teacher Justin Pickcard, sale of the BBQ’s generated over $30 thousand dollars for the Jim Brabeck Foundation to help FFA students who raised livestock for the fair.
Each year, dozens of wood and metal shop students sell their projects at the Industrial Arts Auction, but few students had access to school shops because of the pandemic. Some worked independently at home. At Paso Robles high school, the students were able to work about two hours per week to weld the barbecues.
