#BUILDYOUROWN DESK FOR PHILLY PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS!
THE #BUILDYOUROWN DESK GUIDE IS READY!
Oh my goodness, can you believe it? Our guide to Build Your Own (BYO) Desk or Desks for Philly public school students is finally available!
Thank you for the patience and persistence demonstrated by many who have continued to reach out about getting involved. Truth be told, it has taken us considerably longer than expected to wrap-up the how-to plans for the Desks. First the cost of wood skyrocketed over Christmas forcing us to redesign the Desk. Then our team of Heroes relentlessly worked to fine tune the building process to maximize efficiency and quality (small things make a big difference when fabricating hundreds of units); they have built a factory, creating specialized tools and even designing their work week/day to maximize output. Unsurprisingly, requests for desks and stools soon shot past 1000 requests necessitating further tweaking of the desks and a complete redesign of the stools so that we could even begin to imagine meeting demand. The spike in demand meant further grant writing and fundraising was needed to support expanded production. Distribution to families all over Philadelphia has proven to be incredibly rewarding but takes considerable time and coordination. Lastly, we have been slammed with requests for help with equally important community-based projects and while we have managed for this work to not inhibit desk production, it has meant that our capacity has been limited. We are not fans of excuses and apologize for not communicating more but frankly this is what we have been up against. That being said, we spent a lot of time making sure this guide is just right, to make it as easy as possible for you to make desks for Philly students or young people in your lives.
WE NEED YOUR HELP REACHING OUR GOAL OF 1000 DESKS BY JUNE!
To date, our team of Building Heroes, with the support of some neighborhood volunteers and a couple of builders who helped beta test the BYO Desk Guide, have created over 559 desks and stools for Philadelphia public school families. Kids and their families have been incredibly generous sharing photos of their new learning areas. We have been excited to learn from them that they LOVE their desks and having them has been transformative. That being said, a lot of families still don’t have desks and even with schools reopening, many of the families on our list are not immediately sending their kids back. In fact, we continue to get requests for desks and stools despite no efforts at marketing.
Our goal is to get 1000 desks and stools completed by June when most of our team of Building Heroes will have to fully pivot to working on community-based projects. We can’t hit that goal without your help.
ARE YOU READY TO START BUILDING? HERE YOU GO!
1- You can download the desk guide here.
2- Need a tutorial, a few extra tips, or have questions?
If it’s helpful to get you started, our Building Heroes would be happy to come to your shop and go over in person how to assemble the desk or meet over a zoom call. Not only could this be helpful for you and/or your team, it would help our Building Heroes to continue developing their leadership and woodworking skills, along with getting them exposure to the variety of fabrication shops in the Philadelphia area. Please let us know if you’re interested in this and we can make it happen.
3- Want to help build at Tiny WPA?
If you realize you don’t have the tools you need to build in your space, you’re welcome to come build with us! Volunteer Days are Wednesday and Fridays from 11am-5pm at our workshop located at 4017 Lancaster Ave. If you’re interested in volunteering please email Megan@tinywpa.org to confirm which day(s) you’d like to join us. Coordinating ahead of time will allow us to plan and ensure you have a good experience when you’re here.
4- Have a space and manpower but you need materials to build a bunch of desks for Philly public school students?
We can probably help, please contact Megan Siegl! Megan@tinywpa.org
5- Have a group and you would like to schedule a group build?
We are open to supporting desk building workshops in our space or at your facility. Please contact Megan Siegl at Megan@tinywpa.org.
