Madison Park

Technical Vocational High School

BOSTON (CBS) – Seven thousand down, three thousand more to go. Students at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School in Roxbury are using their shop skills to help schools throughout Boston.

Carpentry students and their instructors are making doorstops to keep classroom doors open – increasing air flow and reducing the need to touch the doors and door knobs.

“This has really been an example of all hands on deck, and an example of the great work happening right here are Madison Park Vocational High School,” Boston Schools Superintendent Dr. Brenda Cassellius said, as she visited the hard-working crew Friday.

“This came as a request from the City of Boston and the Boston Public Schools,” Madison Park Executive Director Kevin McCaskill said. “This is so much more than students producing doorstops. They’re doing their part to help out during this time.”

The project started on Monday, and they are cranking out well over a thousand doorstops a day.

“It feels great,” carpentry student Michael Nichols said. “It feels like I’m actually doing something good for the community and helping out the schools.”

“This is not only teaching me about work ethic, but it’s also teaching me life skills and personal responsibility,” added student Miguel Pimentel.

The goal for the Madison Park Technical Vocational High School students and faculty is to make ten thousand of the wooden doorstops, and deploy them to 123 schools across Boston.