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Campolindo High School student Christy Faoro's chessboard made of maple and padauk, framed in walnut. Photos provided

Seventeen Campolindo High School students recently earned California State Fair Industrial and Technology Education awards for their woodworking projects. The entries ranged from small desks to cabinets, chests, clocks and chessboards. Three students - Christy Faoro, Jessie Thompson, and Matin Amanat - won first place awards. Faoro also took home Outstanding Award, Best of Show and the MacBeath Hardwood Award.
The students were all enrolled in second or third year woodworking classes taught at Campolindo by Donald Dupont. Dupont said he encourages all his students to enter either the Contra Costa County Fair or the State Fair; he requires seniors to enter one or the other.
"Christy's [Faoro's] project was really outstanding; she deserved everything she got," said Dupont, who estimated there was a total of 60 to 70 wood project entries at the fair.
Faoro's project was a chessboard made of maple and padauk woods, framed in walnut. She scroll cut individual chess pieces last year using poplar and redwood, then paired them with the "nicer board" she made during this year's class. Faoro combined the chessboard she made last year with this year's checker pieces, and gave that set to her mother as a gift.
"The chessboard only took about a month and the chess pieces took two and a half months [to make]," Faoro explained.
Faoro had not entered at the state fair level before, and was "really surprised" to learn she'd won.
"It was fun seeing other people's entries," she said. Faoro said woodworking classes, "have helped me process my [other school] work."
"It's been a great class," agreed her mother Liz Faoro, who said it has given her daughter a skill to share with her father and uncles, all of whom work with wood.
Campolindo students Erwin Gove, Matthew Tuan, and Patrick White earned second place awards at the state fair. Four students - Kyle Gavce, Weston Gillbanks and Bonny Pennell - earned third place awards, and eight more students - Drew Gustafson, Tyler More, Alex Oeth, Alyssa Parsons, Robin Slovak, Matthew Stickle, Caitlin Burnite and Chase Ingersol - received Honorable Mention.
Dupont said his third year woodworking class, Furniture Design, History and Construction, satisfies an entrance requirement in visual and performing arts for the University of California and California State University systems. Campolindo's woodworking classes are completely funded through the Moraga Education Foundation (http://moragaeducation.org/), said Stacy Giglio, MEF Promotions. All MEF funds come from private donations.

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