Shown are those Wawasee Building Trades students who were able to attend the banquet Tuesday evening in Syracuse. In front, from left, are Miguel Gomez Gonzalez, Landon Schmitt, Jaron Park and Zandra Tingle. In the back row are Daegan Kingery, Joshua Schwartz, Kaiden Ruff, Blaise McGee and Gage Knox. Photo by Tim Ashley.

By Tim Ashley
InkFreeNews

SYRACUSE — Wawasee Building Trades held its annual banquet Tuesday evening, May 11, in the high school cafeteria.

There are 29 total students in building trades this school year. Twenty-five are first year students and four are in their second year of building trades. Nearly all are Wawasee students with the exception of a few Columbia City students.

First year students include Abraham Barrera (Columbia City), Brady Bell (Columbia City), Ethan Clark, Courtney Cox, Hayden Dement, Trent Ebey, Drew Evans, Connor Fry (Columbia City), Caleb George, Miguel Gomez Gonzalez, Santana Guerra, Daniel Haberman, Gage Knox, Roxanna Martinez, Blaise McGee, Austin Myers, Emmanuel Nunez, Jaron Park, Kaiden Ruff, Landon Schmitt, Zandra Tingle, Sylvester Trujillo, Riley VanCleave, Caden Welty and Alec Wortinger.

Second year students are Tavion Foster (Columbia City), Daegan Kingery, Joshua Schwartz and Gavin Wilson.

Several of the students were unable to attend the banquet.

Kingery received the Builder of the Year Award and in addition to a plaque was presented a Dewalt tool set.

This year’s project was the renovation of the former school corporation central office in Syracuse into classrooms and office space. It is a commercial, not residential, project and has been a different experience for building trades students including steel framing and a different type of electrical work, noted Aaron McKinley, building trades instructor.

“Steel framing is something they will not touch in residential building,” he said.

The banquet included a meal prepared by Dan Bauer’s culinary arts students.

An open house to show off the work done by students is scheduled for 3 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 18. The building is located along Syracuse-Webster Road in front of the high school in Syracuse.

For more information, call (574) 457-3147.

Daegan Kingery received the Wawasee Building Trades Builder of the Year Award.