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North House Folk School and Cook County High School shop teachers teamed up with four kids from CCHS to build and install a new bridge between the Cook County Community Center and the tennis courts.
The workmanship is first rate, and the bridge is functional and good looking.
Joe Williams and three other high schoolers Greta Roth, Kaj Erikson, and Robert Rodriguez were the young workers who did much of the hands-on work, but they had plenty of help.
“We spent a school week down at North House Folk School cutting timbers under the direction of Peter Henrikson,” said Joe. “Peter was assisted in leading by my mom, Martha Williams, and my shop teacher, Eric Rundman. The labor was done by four high schoolers and three leaders. We raised the bridge last week (end of May) with the help of a few shop classes who came outside and lifted Timbers. In all, cutting the timbers took about a week, and the raising the bridge took three days.”
The 26-foot-long bridge is made from 26-foot-long white pine timbers cut by Kent Anderson with the rest of the wood coming from Hedstrom’s Lumber mill.
Peter Henrickson did the project design for the bridge, and he is putting in the rafters, with the county completing the roofing.
The metal fabrication was done by CCHS students under the watchful eye of Eric Rundeman.
North House Folk School Program Director Jessa Frost said North House has welcomed CCHs students to the campus for week-long timber framing courses since 2006.
“The students spend the week in the woodshop here, learning new skills and experiencing a potential career path. This program was now initially funded through a grant but is now supported in part through the sale of the student project. Whenever possible, we love for the student work to stay in the community: recent examples include the bridge in the Rec Park, the scorer’s nest at the William Kelley sports arena, and parts of the blacksmith shop on the North House campus. We’re always interested in great homes for these frames in Cook County!”
The builders of the bridge that connects the tennis courts and the Cook County Community Center playground are, from L-R: Martha Williams, Eric Rudman, Kaj Erickson, Robert Rodriguez, Joe Williams, Greta Roth and Peter Henricksen. Photo courtesy of Martha Williams
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