Apollo Career Center senior Isaiah Hindenlang operates an excavator as part of Apollo’s cleanup efforts Thursday at St. Joseph Cemetery in Wapakoneta.
Craig Kelly | The Lima News
WAPAKONETA — When it comes to learning a trade, hands-on experience is often the best teacher. On Thursday, construction equipment technology students at Apollo Career Center got the chance to gain some of that experience while giving back to a community still picking up the pieces in the wake of a natural disaster.
On April 1, Wapakoneta experienced an EF1 tornado that caused significant damage in the community, damage particularly visible along the Interstate 75 corridor. That tornado was one of three that touched down in Auglaize County that morning.
One place that suffered damage was St. Joseph Cemetery just east of I-75 on Wapakoneta Fisher Road. For high school seniors in the construction equipment technology program, this was the perfect opportunity to put their skills to use for a good cause.
“This project is two weeks going on now,” Apollo CET instructor Chris Washam said. “A couple of days after [the tornadoes], we mobilized our equipment.”
Along with students to help with the cleanup, Apollo transported excavators, skid loaders, a dump truck and other heavy equipment to the cemetery. They soon found that all of that equipment was sorely needed on site as at least a dozen large trees were blown down, knocking over headstones and causing damage to the grounds.
This work by the students is part of Apollo’s Student Emergency Response Team (SERT), an effort organized by Washam, who formerly worked for the Ohio Department of Transportation, and Apollo senior Porter Wilson, who is also a firefighter in Spencerville.
“We go out in the community for cleanup projects after storms,” Wilson said. “We’ll help out with crowd control, traffic control, anything like that.”
For Washam and the students, these efforts represent the chance to give back to the communities that have given so much to Apollo.
“We wouldn’t have this nice equipment if it wasn’t for people in Wapak or Shawnee or in the greater Lima area,” Washam said.
Apollo senior Isaiah Hindenlang echoed that appreciation, saying he hoped their efforts would help make a difference in their communities while also helping them hone their skills.
“It’s nice to help people out because these people are coming out and looking at the headstones and graves of their loved ones, and we want to make it look good again,” he said.
Reach Craig Kelly at 567-242-0391 or on Twitter @cmkelly419.
