Jan. 31—Standing 16 feet and overlooking a small pond, a new water wheel created by Strom Thurmond High School students was recently installed at the Old McDonald Fish Camp in North Augusta.

The wheel was created by nine welding students in the high school career center over the fall semester. The idea came after welding instructor Bill Cheatham met with the fish camp owner Jay Bass.

"All I did was tell them the dimensions and he measured the area for how big the dimensions were for the area that we wanted it," Bass said.

"We do a lot of community projects and we have done things for the town of Edgefield and we have done projects for farmers all over South Carolina. We've got things everywhere," Cheatham said. "They learn all the processes but they have to learn how to fabricate and cut things and put them together and weld them."

Bass, a Strom Thurmond graduate, was pleased with the work that the students created and with the added details of the cutout man and whiskey barrels.

"I am very proud of it. They did an awesome job," Bass said.

Seniors Tristen Puckett and Sarah Wates enjoyed the challenges of creating the aluminum water wheel from scratch with their classmates.

"It means a lot to me because I want to go into welding and there are not a lot of girls that do welding, so it is just a really good opportunity to have," Wates said.

Although he has no plans to be a welder, the project held a special meaning to Puckett.

"My grandpa always did this, so me doing this and showing him how I can do it made a big impact on me because it showed him that I can do it, too and it made him really proud of me," Puckett said. "When he saw it, it was really cool."

Junior Ben Blythe, who also works at the Fish Camp as a hushpuppy cook, found the project to be important.

"I thought it was kind of ironic that I started working on the wheel two weeks or so after I started working there," he said. "They were talking about working on a big project and then it was revealed that it was the wheel."

Cheatham explained the hard work the students is not always a straight path to success.

"When it doesn't work out like they want it, you just slow them down a bit and talk to them and go show them some things and if they get on a project and they get discouraged, take them off and go on another project and let them start something else and then they can come back to it," Cheatham said. "They all work together well."

"These kids can come back and say that I did that right there and built that and take pride in it," Bass said. "I think they did, judging where they were when they installed it."

Samantha Winn covers the cities of North Augusta and Augusta, with a focus on community oriented business and events. Follow her on Twitter: @samanthamwinn and on Facebook and Instagram: @swinnnews.