For 70 Years, Fairfield Warde High School's Woodshop Has Showcased Students' Creativity

FAIRFIELD, CT — Talk to Fairfield Warde High School educator Luke Allen, and one thing becomes abundantly clear.

The man is passionate about wood, which is important, of course, for the instructor who runs the school's Woodshop.

"We have the biggest wood shop program in southern New England by machine count, not square footage," Allen told Patch. "There are bigger physical shops, but I have more machines per capita than any other program in southern England."

Walk into the Warde Woodshop and you immediately see his point. Huge table saws, standing drills, routers, laser machines and other equipment, much of which are decades old, are spread throughout the room.

Allen is just the latest instructor to run the program, following in the illustrious footsteps of Frank C. Ambrose, Robert Fabryk, Paul Lewis, Patrick Dizney, and John Kassay Sr.

The shop is celebrating its 70th year, and in June will host its 30th Wood Show, a showcase for many of the pieces of furniture and carpentry items made by students. Many of the student projects will be for sale at the show, which is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon on June 6 in the school's cafeteria.

Allen has helmed the program for a decade, and said it would not be same without some outside help.

"We use almost 97 percent of our budget to buy wood, because we're one of the only programs in New England where we don't charge the kids for wood," Allen said. "We have really awesome suppliers who we've been dealing with since the 1950s, and they make things work."

For Allen, the cool thing about the program, besides teaching woodworking skills, is that students get to be creative.

"It's not just birdhouses, as you can see, it's not just birdhouses," Allen said.

Students have built cabinets, large and small tables, dining room sets, bed frames, decorative charcuterie and cutting boards. And while wood is the predominant material, students also make things out of metal, plastic, acrylic and other materials.

In fact, the wood front counter at BE Chocolat in Fairfield was made by Warde students, Allen said.

"I'm very thankful for all the support that we have, especially from the administration and the community," Allen said. "Parents, students, administrators, teachers, businesses... it's been great."