After a full year of work high school carpentry students in Saskatoon were able to hand over a brand new home to Whitecap Dakota First Nation this morning.
Students from the High School Carpentry Apprenticeship Program at Mount Royal Collegiate have been working on the home over the past couple semesters.
At a ceremony on Thursday morning the students in the program officially handed the keys over to Whitecap Chief Darcy Bear.
Chief Bear says the new home was quite the sight.
“When I was going to high school I built a nightstand,” joked Chief Bear. “When we started this program the students were building garden sheds and now they are building homes, which is great to see.”
This is the sixth house that Whitecap has purchased from the H-CAP program and Chief Bear says it will help fill the demand for housing in the community.
“The demand is there, so this house will go in our pool and will be a lucky family who gets a new house,” said Bear.
Ross Johnson is a teacher who has been working with the students throughout the program. He says they have learned many valuable skills and couldn’t be more proud of the accomplishment.
“This is great,” said Johnson. “It was just a good team effort by all of us and its a great looking home for someone out at the Whitecap Dakota First Nation.”
14 students partook in the program. Among them was grade eleven student Courtney Hillbom who says the entire program has been a great experience.
“It’s a lot of fun, the class is amazing and the teachers are awesome, so I suggest anyone should give it a try,” said Courtney. “I think it is an amazing thing we have done here, so I am very excited for the people who are getting this house to actually get it and move in.”
The house itself will be moved to Whitecap early tomorrow morning.