RIVER FALLS — Students in Matthew Kapitz’s home and auto class at River Falls High School constructed a tiny home that will go toward the River Falls Ministerium’s efforts to combat homelessness and housing insecurity in the city.

The ministerium, made up of Ezekiel Lutheran Church, First Congregational Church, HOPE Lutheran Church, Luther Memorial Church, Spirit of Grace and Unitarian Universalist Society, partnered with Our Neighbors’ Place, sought the help of the students. After coming up with some designs, Kapitz tasked his class with helping the cause through a hands-on project.

“We were all kind of skeptical at first because it’s a nine-week term, and we didn’t know how much we would be able to get done, but after three weeks of fixing the trailer, they started to really run with it. The framing has gone fairly quick,” Kapitz said.

The students have taken the project in stride. Junior Eric Moss said they grinded the frame, painted it to avoid rust, laid down flooring, insulated, built up walls and set everything up for the finishing touches. Through that hard work, the class that ranges from freshmen to seniors have learned applicable skills for the future.

“A lot of kids learn better with hands-on experience,” Moss said. “It’s just a lot more fun for a lot of the kids.”

“It’s really nice because it’s something enjoyable to do during class, it helps us learn while you’re helping the community for people who are between houses,” Moss said.

When the walls went up during the final week of school, everyone was proud of how far they got despite the one-term time constraint.

“We’ll have gotten farther than even I thought we could get,” Kapitz said. “For me it was my first time teaching home and auto class here at this school. I’ve taught woodworking, welding, small engines, all sorts, but it was my first time with home and auto, so I was trying to come up with a project they can do. They didn’t know how they could frame something, they didn’t know how to weld and even spray painting something basic. Simple home maintenance is what this course is about.”

The course teaches about electrical work, plumbing, dry wall, basic automobile knowledge and more. The things that home and car owners need to know, Kapitz is determined to teach.

“Kids take our classes because they want to get away from the monotony… they want to be hands-on,” Kapitz said. “Having something like this that they can come to, especially in a fourth block class where kids are getting squirrelly at the end of the day, it’s really good for them.”

Junior McKeon Grathwol said, as a freshman, he remembers the home and auto class building a shed and now they are up to a tiny home. The students are becoming more skilled by the year, and he hopes the projects continue to challenge them to improve.

“I would love to see more shop classes become a thing and more complex projects,” Grathwol said.

He said the project required a lot of mathematics applications that they do on paper. The mix has sparked Grathwol to help the class in any way he can.
“This is a really fun class for people who enjoy being more technical,” Grathwol said. “You are learning things on paper, and then you’re also applying that.”