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No one knows who first said: ”No good deed goes unpunished.”  But, when you live in the most litigious state in the most litigious country in the world, it is wise to heed the warning.  When I asked Mike Amos who I should talk to about liability insurance for our project, he said without hesitation, Robert L. Hemme, President of Strachota Insurance Agency, Inc.  Robert and his associate Deena Evancik worked many hours to find an underwriter who would insure our unique “new venture” of building homes with student labor.  Deena talked with many underwriters to get us the liability coverage [...]

I have known Mike and Debi Amos since they built our dream home for us in Fallbrook in 2009.  Their company, MLA General Contractor, Inc., did a beautiful job on our house, and they have been good friends ever since.  When we started the Warrior Village Project, one of my first actions was to seek Mike’s wisdom, gained from building custom homes for over 30 years.  For the last two years Mike and his sons TJ and Matthew have provided invaluable construction advice and have introduced me to others in the community who have become great supporters of our project.  Thank [...]

The Associated General Contractors of San Diego County (AGC) has been a steadfast partner of our program.  AGC Training & Apprenticeship Instructors Jon Hill and Alan Jurgensen taught carpentry skills to our students at San Marcos High School every Thursday when school was in session.  Jon supervised the excavation for the foundation and recruited fellow instructor Larry Paredes to supervise the construction of the forms for the foundation for our first cottage.  AGC donated lumber, rebar and other materials for the forms, and Larry, Jon and Alan were ‘hands on’ during construction of the forms.  Thank you AGC for your support [...]

One of the AWFS® member companies who answered SWM’s call for donations to support school woodworking programs was Royal Plywood Co. of Cerritos, California.  The company contributed over $50,000 in materials.  Arriving in two flatbed trucks, it included laminated panels and multiple species of hardwood.  They also shipped materials from Roseburg Forest Products in Oregon.  Dave Golling, Vice President of Business Development at Royal Plywood said: “We are just thrilled that we could help out the local high school students by donating some of the materials we have in stock.  We think this is a great program and will make a [...]

Member companies of the Association of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers (AWFS®) are big supporters and advocates for Career Technical Education (CTE) programs.  AWFS® companies partner with high schools with the intention of hiring students at graduation; offer internships and teacher externships; visit schools as guest speakers, and; open company operations for school tours. AWFS®  has supported the SkillsUSA organization for many years with the donation of materials and the time commitment of industry professionals.  In 2017 the Society of Wood Manufacturing (SWM), a chapter of AWFS, was created to increase industry support to high school woodshop programs in Southern California.

Lumber collected by the Society of Wood Manufacturing (SWM) for school woodworking programs was distributed from the Architectural Woodworking Company (AWC) plant in Monterey Park, CA.  Saul Martin, VP of Manufacturing for AWC, opened the plant to woodworking teachers on three Saturdays so that they could load their trucks and trailers with wood to take back to their schools. “SWM wanted to do something that would impact as many woodworking students as possible”, says Martín.  This was when the teachers really needed some help from industry to boost their woodworking program.”

Our Building Permit for the installation of our first cottage at a Wounded Warrior Homes residence in Vista was issued on 5 November 2020, exactly 6 months from the day that the County of San Diego logged our plans into it’s tracking system.  This kicks off the next phase of our project, starting the site work.  Starting on 5 December, a team of Seabee volunteers from the Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 303 (CBMU-303) will do excavation and trenching work for the foundation and utility services.  Rick Hoehn and Rick Millwee from RM Plumbing will be back to supervise trenching operations and [...]