When a devastating tornado ripped through Rome in July 2024, the damage to the city was extensive. Among the homes, businesses, and landmarks that were impacted was the John Kost Memorial Complex, the home fields of the Rome Girls Softball League and the Rome Free Academy softball teams.

A few months later, the Rome Girls Softball League approached the Carpentry class at MOBOCES with a request: Could students help rebuild the dugouts?

The answer was an enthusiastic yes.

The Carpentry class, like many of the Career and Technical Education classes at MOBOCES, often partners with community agencies and local nonprofits to complete hands-on learning projects that go beyond the classroom. Over the past few years, the Carpentry program has built a pavilion for Tri-City Lacrosse, built flower boxes for an Oneida elementary school, and designed and constructed a wheelchair ramp for a local family through Cluster 13 Ministries.

“What better opportunity to give back using the skills they’re learning in this class?” Carpentry instructor Jim Farruggia said. “They get a real sense of being on a work site and what is involved in working in this industry, and they can see the impact of their work in the community.”

Through the winter, the Carpentry senior class worked on the dugouts mainly in their classroom carpentry lab on campus, with a few visits to Rome to complete preliminary site preparation work, like pouring concrete to expand the footprint of each structure.

As an added hands-on learning component, Farruggia had his students draw scale blueprints with both plan views and section views. Farruggia selected the drawings submitted by VVS senior Killian Bauer – who is planning to study Construction Management at Utica University – and sent them to the City of Rome Codes Enforcement Office for review and finalization.

In May, the class moved out to the actual work site, traveling by bus each morning to Kost Field to complete and install the four dugouts before the end of the school year. Next year’s senior Carpentry class will pick up Phase 2 of the project and build the remaining four dugouts so that all the fields at the Kost complex will be fully useable again.

Canastota senior Cy Moore, who is planning to enter the U.S. Air Force, said the dugout project and the Carpentry class itself have been a great learning experience for him.

“When you do something like this out in the community, you get a real sense of accomplishment,” he said.