In a life skills class at Wright City High School, special education students practice independent skills like cooking, household chores and workplace behavior in a repurposed home economics kitchen.
It’s a valuable experience for the students who special ed teacher Pam Hambach said need practice for daily routines others don’t think much about.
Unfortunately, life skills students using the decades-old kitchen are also getting practice working around deteriorating cabinets, aged appliances and water that only gets hot when you heat it on the stove. A community organization is trying to  give them a modern facility that will match what they’ll use after high school.
Hambach commented that many people take for granted the kinds of things these students need to learn to live independently.
“They just need to learn basic life skills — how to do laundry, how to operate a stove, how to cook a meal … a lot of safety skills,” said Hambach. “(We use) the old ‘If you want to eat, you better work’ motto. Everybody participates.”
The life skills classroom is getting a renovation and new equipment thanks to fundraising from Pauldingville Masonic Lodge and work donated by American Oasis remodeling company, both based in Wright City.
Tina Lashley, treasurer of the Pauldingville Lodge Charitable Foundation, said her own family’s experience made her aware of this need in the high school.
“Every student needs these life skills, but most of them pick them up normally on a day-to-day basis at home,” said Tina Lashley. “These individuals take a little bit longer. The repetitive motions of doing things is what’s going to help them.”
Lashley’s daughter, Haley, is diagnosed with autism and had Hambach as a teacher until she graduated several years ago. When Hambach went to Facebook asking for a crock pot to supplement the class’s 1980s stove, Lashley said Pauldingville Lodge did one better and found a good deal on a brand new stove to donate.
The lodge has now raised $5,000 to begin replacing the cabinets and countertops in the room, which Lashley said appear to be original to the high school, which was built in 1967. The drawers fall out, there’s a large hole in at least one cabinet and the plumbing leaks.
While replacing those fixtures, Lashley said the lodge will provide another $1,000 to provide a hot water heater so students don’t have to heat a pot on the stove just to wash their dishes.
Aaron Holiway, co-owner of American Oasis, said his company is donating the labor for the remodel and plans to do much of the work over Christmas break.
The school hopes the kitchen renovation will provide a facility similar to what students might use at potential workplaces or at home, said Wright City Assistant Superintendent Jeremy Way.
“So if they go on in life and maybe work at a restaurant or their own home, they can operate (the equipment),” he commented.
Pauldingville Lodge members said they plan to continue fundraising to replace all of the class’s outdated appliances. They’re hoping to find more organizations in the community who will partner with them for the project, Lashley added. Anyone interested in donating or providing manpower for the remodel can contact Lashley at her business phone number, 636-384-9614.
Those willing to help would be doing a big favor for Wright City’s special needs students, and as Lashley’s daughter Haley pointed out, also for the teacher who makes a difference in their lives.
“Ms. Hambach’s the best teacher you can have,” Haley said.