Harbor Freight Tools for Schools awards $500,000 in prizes to high school skilled trades programs

Harbor Freight Tools has announced that Harbor Freight Tools for Schools LLC, Calabasas, Calif., a nonprofit established to strengthen high school shop classes to give students a path to a skilled trade and a good-paying career, has awarded $500,000 to outstanding skilled trades teachers and their public high schools as part of the first Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence.

Three first-place winners have received $100,000, with $70,000 awarded to the school and $30,000 to the teacher:

• Bob Kilmer teaches woodworking, CAD, and architecture and construction at Enumclaw High School, Enumclaw, Wash. His students are designing and building a tiny house for a local family in need.
• Brendan Malone teaches marine systems technology at Urban Assembly New York Harbor School in Brooklyn, N.Y. His program teaches his students to build, maintain, and repair boats, and his school is the only high school in the country that can credential students for a career in the marine industry.
• Jonathan Schwartz teaches advanced manufacturing and woodworking at Colfax High School, Colfax, Calif. His students use software to design wood projects and then build them with traditional shop tools, CNC equipment, 3-D printers, and laser cutters.

  Seven second-place winners have each received $30,000, with $20,000 to the schools and $10,000 to the teachers. For more information about these winners, visit harborfreighttoolsforschools.org/2017-hftfs-prize-teaching-excellence/.

  Additionally, Harbor Freight Tools provided a $1,000 gift card to each of the 44 semifinalists to support their skilled trades programs.