Sauk Rapids 13-year-old completes 100th Home Depot woodworking project after pandemic setback
WAITE PARK — You could hear the sound of kids hammering nails from an aisle away on Saturday morning at the Waite Park Home Depot. The home improvement retailer hosts workshop classes for kids on the first Saturday of every month.
Last Saturday marked a special day for Sauk Rapids 13-year-old Zoe Spiczka. A loyal patron of the free program, Spiczka has been attending the workshops for almost a decade. She's very handy with a paintbrush and hammer. And her orange Home Depot apron clicks softly as she walks, adorned with dozens of tiny pins − mementos of various crafts she's made nearly every year since she was four years old.
Spiczka was only three projects away from her 100th project milestone in June 2020 when the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic put the Saturday sessions on hold for about two years. Now, after a long wait, she's finally finished her 100th project.
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Spiczka grew up in the Home Depot program
For many employees and parents, watching the kids grow up and gain confidence through hands-on skill learning in the program has been rewarding.
Many remember Spiczka when she was so small she could hardly look over the table. Mandy Spiczka, Zoe's mom, said she had to sew two aprons together to fit all of her pins. There's a line of paint on the apron where the rim of the table once sat at young Zoe's waist-level.
Waite Park Home Depot employees said Zoe Spiczka is the only person they've heard of, company-wide, who has made 100 projects, although others nationwide may have. On Saturday, team leaders brought her a dozen vanilla cupcakes, made her a handmade congratulatory sign and gave her a special pin to add to her apron, one previously reserved for only employee accomplishments. En route is a congratulatory Home Depot apron signed by the CEO and other corporate officials.
During the pandemic, Home Depot would donate unused workshop kits to Boys and Girls Clubs and hand them out to shoppers, but a lot of those kits were repeats of projects Spiczka had done before. The projects have varied over the years ― a wooden car and camper, a Valentine's Day box, a fire rescue boat, a desk organizer, a fake fish tank, an airship and one of Spiczka's favorites: a functioning periscope.
Over time, Spiczka has learned all the tricks, like "don't put the wheels on before you paint" and "go to the bathroom [hand dryer] to dry it more quickly."
Prior to the pandemic, classes would be full of kids and employees would sometimes run out of kits. Now, they often have kits left over.
"The pounding in here would echo throughout the store," said service center employee Joleen Volbert with a laugh. "After COVID, it's been a slower start."
Home Depot workshop teaches valuable skills to the next generation
Watching kids complete the class and work hard to finish projects gives them a sense of accomplishment, said kids workshop captain Jill Harvey. Kids usually come in with parents and family, so these projects help them build relationships, too.
"We're building carpenters," she said. "And also letting young girls know that carpentry isn't just for boys. They can make this stuff too. They also learn how to read with the directions, it's step-by-step … and it's coloring, it's an art form."
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Bryan Schwering, Home Depot front end supervisor, said he's been working at the kids workshop class since he started at Home Depot years ago. He knows of one dad who grew up making workshop projects when he was a kid in the '90s and now brings his son in, too.
"Technically, his son is second generation," Schwering said. "It's just a fun kit, but it's teaching kids useful skills of how to construct things. It's creating future doers."
As Spiczka put the finishing touches on her last project, she was already thinking about where to put her skills to the test next. This year for the Benton County Fair, she made an aluminum sword and wooden scabbard which won the purple champion ribbon in the grades 6-8 metalworking/shop category.
Employees say it's classes like this one that give kids that first opportunity to grow.
"When they're doing arts and crafts at daycare and whatever, they don't usually have anything to do with nails and screwdrivers. Is it a flathead or is it a Phillips? They will learn that here," Volbert said. "Today it's just pounding — a lot of pounding — but they don't typically get to use screwdrivers at home or in school projects."
The next free workshop class is Sept. 3, from 9 a.m. to noon, at the Waite Park Home Depot. No registration is required.
"Watching the little kids when they walk out with their project and they're just so proud … it's worth all the work," Harvey added.
Becca Most is a cities reporter with the St. Cloud Times. Reach her at 320-241-8213 or bmost@stcloudtimes.com. Follow her on Twitter at @becca_most.
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This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Sauk Rapids 13-year-old completes 100th Home Depot woodworking project
