Metal Fabrication Area Receives Donation from Community Partner
Sean Dowd, John Adams, Paul Moskevitz, Brenda Sabatino, Chris Gerber, Maureen Lynch, Stephen Palmer, Amanda Crosby, and Chris Laganas pose with donation (Photo Courtesy of Whittier Tech)
Airgas, an Air Liquide Company, has generously donated surplus supplies including professional protective equipment, welding machines, weld wire, cutting tools, grinding and finish metal supplies, welding consumables and more. The total donation estimate is over $140,000.
Bob Connor, Director of Pricing and Profitability at Airgas, reached out to Vocational Coordinator Paul Moskevitz after seeing a surplus of materials at multiple stores across Connecticut. Moskevitz shared, “We used to buy limited supplies with Airgas as a vendor, this year we formed a partnership to purchase all gasses needed to run not just Metal Fabrication, but other shops as well.” Connor heard about Whittier Tech and the opportunities students have through vocational training and wanted to collaborate with the school. District Manager, Sean Dowd and Account Manager, John Adams organized the donation, collected the materials and shipped them to the school.
Superintendent Maureen Lynch, “It’s companies like Airgas that continue to support our school’s mission for career ready students. The partnerships through donation and cooperative education are invaluable assets to our current and future students.”
Brenda Sabatino, Airgas Area Vice President “We love to support the trades because it’s the heart of our business, it's the people who will use our business out in the field. This donation continues to support a skilled workforce. Who knows maybe some of these kids will come work with us in the future, we do welding training and inspections and would love to have employees like the Whittier graduates.”
Stephen Palmer, longtime Metal Fabrication Instructor and Whittier alumni is thrilled to see the donation help Metal Fabrication flourish. “This is huge.” Palmer said, “We have a lot of equipment originally from the Haverhill Trade School, over 50 years old, so to have a company reach out and donate new equipment and materials. Given the current economy and the increase of material costs this kind of donation helps our overall budget while giving kids the opportunity to complete industry jobs.”
In the Metal Fabrication program students develop working skills in several fabricating fields. Training is accomplished with state-of-the-art equipment, including LVD STRIPPIT Precision Sheering, LVS STRIPPIT Turret Punch, CNC precision plasma cutting, spot welding and new Inverter multi-function welding machines. Welding disciplines also included are Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW), Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW), and Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW), Portable Plasma, Hand Cut Plasma, Pipe Cutting, and Pipe Positioning Accessories.
Students are trained to be certified in their chosen welding disciplines and are prepared to take various welding certification exams. “It’s shocking because the donation came out of nowhere, it’s more than we can use in a single year in the shop. We’ll be able to do new projects that we haven’t done before.” said Joshua Stone, senior from Rowley. Francis Morel, senior from Haverhill, added, “I’m excited about this because it will help not just us as seniors but the freshmen and underclassmen who just selected the shop.”
Chris Gerber, Metal Fabrication Instructor, summarized, “It’s overwhelming the generosity from an individual business. That one area manager had an idea and then organized to bring the supplies here will make a lasting impact on our shop for the future.”
Metal Fabrication Students pose with supplies donated by Airgas (Photo Courtesy of Whittier Tech)
Metal Fabrication students look over specs for a project (Photo Courtesy of Whittier Tech)
John Adams from Airgas and Metal Fabrication Instructors Chris Gerber and Stephen Palmer with donation (Photo Courtesy of Whittier Tech)