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FAIRFIELD – Fairfield High School’s SkillsUSA Club once again supplied ornaments for kids who visit Santa at his house in Central Park.

The club made over 800 Christmas ornaments last year and donated them to the Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce to give away in the Santa House every Friday and Saturday evening from Thanksgiving to Christmas. This year, the club made 900 ornaments, which they manufactured and painted at the high school’s industrial arts room.

SkillsUSA Club Advisor Vannen “Rusty” Crabtree, who also teaches industrial tech at the high school, said the process was faster and more efficient this year since the club members had a year of experience under their belts. It also helped that the club made one ornament, a Christmas tree, instead of attempting multiple ornaments like last year when they made a candle with a flame, Santa’s hat, and a candy with a wrapper coming out the top.

Perhaps most important of all, the club got to make the ornaments with new tools that it received as a gift from the Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce. Last January, the chamber gave the club a benchtop bandsaw, a benchtop drill press, a palm router and a set of bits for it. Club members said these tools were perfect for making ornaments.

Club President Emily Short said the school had two bandsaws last year, but one was broken, so the club could only cut out one ornament at a time.

“That took the longest, having to cut everything out,” Emily said.

Emily’s brother Bobby, who is also a member of the club, remarked, “It’s gone so much faster this time. We have a couple people on the bandsaws, a couple people on the sanders and a couple people painting. It’s a big assembly line.”

Now that its big ornament project is finished, the SkillsUSA Club is looking forward to its next challenge, which will be building a trophy case for the art department in honor of former Fairfield art teacher Mark Shafer. Crabtree said it that, once finished, the trophy case will be in the hallway outside the art room.

The club is not planning to participate in the SkillsUSA competitions at the state level, though Crabtree wants to take students to watch the competition so they can know what to prepare for next year.

“SkillsUSA has a myriad of different skills they compete on, like public speaking, interview contests, welding, auto-mechanics, construction and all different stuff,” he said. “I want [the students] to see what’s going on, and then they can decide what they want to compete in, and we can spend the next year getting ready for it.”

Bobby Short said that, before club members can use the tools in the club, they have to take a shop class to learn about that tool to make sure they use it safely. Last year, all club members were freshmen, and this year, all club members are sophomores. The club members told The Union that, whether they end up going into a career in industrial arts or not, they appreciate what they’ve learned through SkillsUSA.

“I think they’re good skills to learn even if you don’t think you’re going to use them,” Emily said.

“It’s very broad,” Bobby added. “For carpentry, you can do so much with that. I think it’s a pretty valuable skill.”