If Jon Martin, Superintendent of Noxon Schools, hadn’t read the Nov. 25, 2020 edition of the Clark Fork Valley Press, this union of students and veterans may never have happened.

The article was about the Joint Operations Mariposa group in Plains, which is well known for helping veterans, and their new project of installing a columbarium that houses the ashes of veterans that preferred cremation over a traditional burial.

It sits adjacent to the flag-bedecked portion of the cemetery grounds. The columbarium has 40 double spaces to allow the veteran and their spouse to be interred side-by-side and 80 spaces for individual vets.

Because the boxes were made of wood, Martin took the idea to Ben Johnson, the Noxon School shop teacher in his first year, to see if his students might be interested in building them.

It was just a thought but a great one because when Johnson approached Dave Williams of Mariposa with the concept, a win-win project was born.

The boxes Mariposa planned on using were pricy so the one prototype they had purchased was taken to the Noxon shop class. Johnson and his students examined the box and then reengineered a system to make them for $15 or less, depending on the type of wood they would be constructed from (oak, mahogany, maple or cherry).

“The students followed up with a class discussion on the processes needed to replicate and modify the boxes and it turned into a mass production system”, said Johnson.

Students planned for the total construction of 20 single boxes and two double boxes. The process involved manufacturing enough pieces to build all of the required boxes plus an added 15% for waste or quality control.

“After the manufacturing and culling of pieces, we applied polyurethane finish on the surfaces of the inside of the boxes. They continued by an assembly team in sets of four. To finish the procedure, they constructed each door one by one for a custom fit adding the knob. The knob was the new design we developed”, explained Johnson. “Our final step was to apply finish to the boxes with three coats. Two were applied with a brush, wet sanded and the final light coat sprayed on to finish the boxes,” he explained.

A number of the students stated that keeping the boxes square in the gluing process was the biggest challenge.

Johnson said it was a heartfelt venture.

“When I approached them about the project, they were excited and willing to do their part for a community that needed help," Johnson said. "As a whole, the students felt a great appreciation for our veterans and their families and would be honored.”

The students spent most of the third quarter on the boxes. They started the second week of January and finished the project at the beginning of March.

The mission has wrapped up at this point with the final step, delivery.