SIMSBURY, Conn — Story by Greyson Kellner, Cole Pirrello, David Post, and Nathan Cournoyer
Starting in 2016, the Technology and Engineering department at Simsbury High School held a Pen-a-Thon event to raise money for Veteran Suicide Awareness.
Students from Simsbury High School spent 22 hours making wooden pens for Veterans Day.
“What the Pen-a-Thon means to me is a day where we can appreciate the sacrifices that other people have made for us, obviously specifically for veterans, but we don’t really think about the fact that our freedoms are really reliant on other people doing the work that we don't see everyday. The fact we’re able to do something for them, and sacrifice a little bit of our time and energy and learn a skill at the same time is just fantastic," said teacher Cameron Bopp.
Here in the woodshop, Simsbury High School students, both old and new, are engaged in the pen making process. “My favorite thing about the Pen-a-Thon is just everyone coming together to make pens for a good cause. There's people I don't know or that don’t do engineering necessarily that all still come here and make pens. There’s also all being here at a late hour making pens, there’s something about that sense of community," said Rohan Rajappan.
Many students are experienced with making pens, but for some students, the Pen-a-Thon is an entirely brand new type of event. “It’s fun to have a whole bunch of people making one thing for veterans and respecting them. I made five in construction class and two today,," said Kiwaun Long.
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