Parent Teacher Magazine Union County Public Schools - May/June 2019 | Page 6

Forest Hills High students’ carpentry skills put on display at unveiling of Blessed Beans Mobile Café
On March 15, a line of students, staff and parents began to
wrap around the entrance of Forest Hills High as early as 7:30 a.m.
They were all there for the
unveiling of Blessed Beans
Mobile Café, a new mobile coffee
shop that donates its proceeds
to charities and nonprofit
organizations. The Blessed
Beans Mobile Café was built by
Forest Hills High carpentry and
agriculture students, and the
March 15 unveiling was the first
time that the students had the
opportunity to see the finished
product of their handiwork.
“I’ve built things before,
but nothing like this,” Forest
Hills High sophomore Charly
MacDonald said. “In our
carpentry class, we have the
opportunity to work on things that will help us or be useful in the
future. I feel good knowing that what we did is for a good cause.”
What’s great about their partnership with the mobile café,
Forest Hills High carpentry teacher Jacques Dean said, is that
it provided his students with an opportunity to gain real-world
experience while also giving back to their community.
For weeks, the carpentry students built the 8x10 mobile café,
a project that helped enhance their designing, framing, insulation,
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roofing, basic electrical, basic plumbing and troubleshooting
skills. Students enrolled in the agriculture course also provided
modifications to the trailer.
After the unveiling, Blessed
Beans owner and East Union
Middle nurse Erin Moore said
half of the proceeds from the
unveiling will be donated to a
fund set up for Matt Collier, a
Forest Hills High teacher who is
battling an illness.
Collier, who visited the mobile
café, said he was extremely
grateful for the outpouring
of support from the school’s
students, parents and staff as
well as the larger community.
The other half of the
proceeds, Moore said, will
be donated to the school’s
carpentry program.
“This was such an amazing opportunity for students to learn
outside of the box and give back to their community. And to
have a principal that is so supportive of new ideas, ventures and
partnerships that are out of the norm is so neat,” Moore said. “We
wanted to bless others and this came together in such a perfect
way and perfect time. I know that I couldn’t have done this all on
my own.”