Easel project helps community celebrate 250th
Members of the MAHS Tech Ed Club recently completed a project for the community’s 250th display.
“The Tech Ed class members were approached by Jennifer Hurl from the Meyersdale Library and asked if we could make them Adjustable Easels to be used for various displays. I gave three students, Kurt Nichols, Brooke Coddington and Kalea Felker, the project and they pulled it off in just three weeks. They made 12 adjustable easels and finished them as well. The easels will be used to display photos and artwork,” explained Doug Horne Tech Ed Club advisor/instructor.
Display organizer and library archivist, Jennifer Baer Hurl, said the work of these students will be an integral part of the display.
“With help from a devoted team of volunteers, our Meyersdale Public Library has committed itself to decorating all four windows in the former G.C. Murphy Company building in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of our nation’s Declaration of Independence. Early on in the project, I reached out to Doug Horne, requesting if he and the students in the school district’s Tech. Ed. Club might be able to provide us with some adjustable easels. Within a month’s time, we had 12 beautiful wooden easels – all adjustable – made by Brooke, Kalea and Kurt, under Doug’s instruction. They are exactly what we need!”
The display will be finalized in the coming months and will remain on display through the fall.
“We invite everyone to view our window display over the coming summer months and into the autumn. While the display will be set in place by the start of the maple festival, new components will be added as time progresses. We are using the easels in all four windows to showcase paintings and sketches created by local artists, photographs shared with our library by community members, and poster boards advertising our upcoming 250th guest speaker programming series. We can’t thank Doug and his students enough for the time and dedication they put into creating such attractive easels, which are not only serving us well here in 2026 but will most definitely prove helpful to us in coming years, too.”
Horne said this project is just an example of many partnerships our Tech Ed Club has successfully completed over the years. He said he continues to take great pride in the work of the students’ and their willingness to take on extra projects to help serve their community.
“We have done so many projects for and with the community and surrounding areas in the past 34 years that it just makes me smile and reminds me of how hard the students have worked over the years to make their hometown special,” Horne added. “I hope it reminds them of their time at MAHS and gives them a feeling of pride as well.”