MAYVILLE - Monday morning, five students from Mayville High School showed off a finished product that took almost a year from concept to a brat and burger-worthy grill of epic proportions.
Cody Sadowski, Travis Nickels, Duffy Hoffman (pictured left), Seaver Vogel and Jim Krueger along with their teacher Dave Seiler partnered with Mayville Engineering Company to create a grilling station for Project GRILL.
"It took a long time," Sadowski said. "We talked about it the school year prior and then we kind of got some ideas rolling and then the teacher went in and said we would like to be a part of this."
Project GRILL, standing for growing readiness in learning and leading, started in Sheboygan County and expanded to Fond du Lac and Dodge counties. This year, eight schools are competing. It will provide participants with three technical college credits and valuable hands-on experience in manufacturing. Each team partners with a manufacturing company to bring ideas to charcoal-grilling fruition.
"We went with MEC, and what are they known for," Sadowski said. "We all said reloaders, so we went with an outdoors theme and a shotgun shell for the grill to represent what they do and went from there."
The grill is able to hold more than 100 brats and is mounted to a trailer that includes a preparation area, built in stereo, sliding shelf with counter opening for a Nesco roaster, organized storage for utensils and a mounted shotgun shell reloader able to dispense ketchup and mustard.
"I think all of us worked together pretty well," Seiler said. "These kids, we didn't really have too many arguments."
Aside from wooden features on the grill, many of the parts were manufactured by MEC.
"It was probably around February that we started," Seiler said. "Everything that you see on the grill as far as how the parts are made and manufactured except for the handle was all done by MEC."
The group also did all of the work in their spare time.
"It's not even a class," Seiler said. "They've been doing it on the weekends. It was going to be very difficult to get it during a class, to get all these guys together at the same time."
The students also worked with MEC employees on how to fabricate the pieces they designed and helped with the painting of the trailer. All of the students agree that one of the highlights was being able to tour MEC's plants and see how things are manufactured on a large scale.
"We sat with their engineers and they worked with us" Seiler said. "It's been unbelievable to be this fortunate to be able to work with them."
Monday morning, the students unveiled the finished product to employees at MEC.
"It's a neat project," said MEC President and CEO Bob Kamphuis. "The students came up with some great ideas for design and our guys enjoyed working with them."
Kamphuis checked out the grill along with many of the employees that helped the students in fabrication.
"It shows a lot of creativity," he said. "I think it's something that we can display proudly around the community. Just seeing the kids work together with our guys it puts a spark in our people too."
The students will compete with other schools and showcase their work this weekend in Fond du Lac.
msheridan@capitalnewspapers.com
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