Manatee Elementary brought new meaning to the H. J. High hands-on approach to construction. Certainly, we’re a hands-on team. Well, so are they. Literally.
We imprinted the hands of more than 1,800 elementary school students onto these panels. Over a three week period, we coordinated the logistics of bus-loading school children, ages 6-12, to cast their handprints in plaster molds. While it was certainly a fun aspect to the project with a wonderful result, it also required a great deal of care, scheduling and oversight, particularly with regard to children on an active construction site. The handprints were a reverse image of the children’s hands and to identify whose hands they were also meant the H. J. High team would write the children’s initials backwards 1,800 times! It took 9,900 pounds of plaster to create the handprint molds and 700 man-hours to handle the whole process.