Rigby High School students build pizza oven to help others
RIGBY, Idaho (KIFI) - Some Rigby High School students were looking for a way to give back to their community. They couldn't come up with any ideas, so they consulted their teachers and found out about an opportunity they had to try and build a pizza oven.
"We worked with them and got in on some of their community meetings. And from there, we've been able to work to get some of the resources. And Godfrey got some of the fabrication students working on creating it," Joel Ricks said.
The pizza oven hopes to be able to help those who struggle with loneliness feel not so alone.
"There are a lot of producers and even kids in our school that struggle with their mental health, and they don't know how to express that and to feel alone. So our idea with this is to be able to use this pizza oven, to be able to create social events where kids can talk to their peers and be able to recognize that they're not alone and that people are there for them," Ricks said.
He adds they hope to encourage those who are already working heavily to find a way to take a break from the stresses of their jobs.
"Also, we want to incorporate that for farmers and producers as well, so that we can get them out, not necessarily working all the time or so we can get them away from their job, and they can discuss with some other producers, hopefully, be able to know that the issues that they're struggling with, they're not alone in, and that other people are feeling those to be able to get rid of that no I'm alone mindset," Ricks said.
Some of the students who helped build the oven say it's been challenging.
"My first thought was, just how we're going to do it because the only reference material we had was just a picture of a different one that someone else built. So it's just been really fun taking that reference photo and turning it into something that we built," Kaiden Sorenson said.
"It's always been pretty difficult, but it's definitely been really fun," Brad Schatt said.
They describe how it all came together.
"We've just kind of had to cut into it and add some stuff onto it. And then there was a stick tar inside that we had to figure out how to get out, and we ended up just burning it out. And then we pressure washed some of the paint off and then pressure washer inside of it, and then we had to put the legs on, make it level, and that's all we have done so far," Schatt said.
But before it's ready, Sorenson shares what's next.
"We're going to fill it full of concrete with fire bricks and all that stuff. So we can actually make things that we should be good to go," Sorenson said.
All the students were excited just to be able to do something to help the community.
