Big Show 2022
The “Big Show” as it is called for short had over 100 projects submitted to the competition. A combined total of over 100 junior and senior high students from the Santa Barbara Unified School District Woodshop Classes participated and 80 parents and professionals attended the awards ceremony!
The Big Show is a one day, open to all public with no entrance fee. The event showcases 8 categories of 6 woodshop projects:
- Seating
- Furniture
- Toys
- Turned objects
- Turned mechanical pens and pencils
- Tech projects such as surfboards and skateboards
- cutting boards
- Boxes
- Open category for “ingenuity”.
The schools that participated are:
- Dos Pueblos High School
- Goleta Valley Junior High School
- La Cumbre Junior High School
- San Marcos High School
- Santa Barbara Junior High School
- Santa Barbara High School.
Tradart added a new category called “Tech” which offered the students a deeper challenge to their skill set quiver. They learned about working with epoxy and wood together. In addition, we had very challenging technical skills which included using the digital world in their curriculum, as well as their hands on-work with the shop machinery.
Cash prizes and ribbons were awarded to first and second place in each category and to each junior and senior high school student individually. $50 for first prize and $25.00 for second prize.
Hayward Lumber sponsored the prize for the winner of the Visitor’s Choice award! It offered a $100 gift certificate to spend at their business.
Not only do the Santa Barbara Unified School District’s technical instructors count on this end of the year “Big Show” but so do the students themselves count on this show to showcase their talents, abilities, know-how, and mastery of skill sets; It is a type of visual resume and important for tradesmen to begin this first step out into the real world. It brought the community together and validated the collaboration that Tradart has assisting the SBUSD Woodshop Classes to connect to our local building and construction community, and future local employers.
Thank you to the Big Show Judges:
- Ben Ewart – of Ben Ewart Construction;
- Tai Yey – Architect – Tai Yey Architecture;
- Tiffany Carson – Career Technical Education Liaison for the Santa Barbara Unified School District;
- Hilda Maldonado – Superintendent of Santa Barbara Unified School District.
*Photo Credit: Nell Campbell
