Sinclair helps upgrade VoAg

The Vocational Agriculture (Vo-Ag) shop at Saratoga Middle/High School is currently filled with machinery that is older than the kids that use them.

But not for long.

Dressed in their signature blue jackets, several members of the Future Farmers of America (FFA) held up a poster-sized check for $23,556 given by Sinclair Wyoming Refining company.

Lane Moreland, the Vo-Ag Teacher at Saratoga Middle/High School said that the grant will go to purchasing new shop equipment.

"The plan is that we are going to use it to purchase new equipment for the shop," Moreland said. "The goal is to give our kids a good grasp of what they will use in the real world."

Though Moreland and the Saratoga FFA students were thrilled about donation, if it was not for a series of fortuitous events, the Vo-Ag program may have not gotten that grant.

Moreland originally met with Ryan Wells the fire chief at Sinclair Refinery. Though Moreland first asked if Sinclair had any extra scrap metal they could use for the Vo-Ag class, he said that their conversations escalated into a grant.

"We got to talking back and forth. He said 'I think I might be able to help you' and it went from there," Moreland said.

Moreland said that much of the equipment in the Vo-Tech classroom needed to be upgraded.

"For example our drill press will blow breakers if it is plugged in," Moreland said. "Some of these welders I had to go through and get parts for. Even our most modern equipment ... has issues."

Moreland said that the students at SMHS were thrilled when the got news of the grant.

"I told the kids that this check had been coming and they've been excited every day," Moreland said. "They are happy about some positive changes around here."

But it is not just the students at SMHS that benefit from the grants. Steve Sondergard, Sinclair Oil refinery manager, said that they hope that kids that learn these skills in high school may work for Sinclair in the future.

"It benefits kids in the community and we are hoping that, with these skills, maybe someday some of these kids will come join us and work at the refinery. They'll have a better experience in school, they'll know more if they didn't have this equipment," Sondergard said.

"We hoping that they better their education and that just benefits everyone in the community and the whole county," he added

Wells, Sondergard and Moreland all agreed that Sinclair continuing to help Vo-Ag will benefit everyone in the community.

"I think that this is the start of a relationship between this program and the refinery," Wells said.