AWFS honors students at Student Competition

 Monday, July 22, 2019

Nicholas Maraldo, a student at Furniture Institute of Massachusetts won the Best of Show award in the 2019 AWFS® Fresh Wood Competition after judges reviewed 42 finalist projects of from 25 different high schools and colleges in the U.S. at the 2019 AWFS®Fair in Las Vegas, Nevada. Thirty-three Fresh Wood student finalists went home with monetary prizes ranging from $250 to $1,000, along with trophies and software prizes.

Maraldo was awarded an iconic sculpture made by renowned woodworker and artist Judson Beaumont, a reference to his work The Apple Cabinet, which was unveiled during the award ceremony. He received $1,000 and a KCD Software Package. He also received First Place in the Post Secondary Tables category of the competition, which included another $1,000 prize and a Certificate of Merit. The Best of Show award is sponsored by KCD Software.

Fair attendees awarded the People’s Choice Award, sponsored by Wagner Meters, and a $750 prize to Cole Daniels at Rolla Technical Institute, for his project Hard Ninety, an originally designed shuffleboard with intricate paneling and accenting, which also won Second Place in the 2019 High School Special Theme Category: Sports and Games.

A new Bravo to Teachers award was given out, thanks to sponsor PantoRouter, who presented a well-deserving teacher they selected with a PantoRouter tool: the recipient was Joe Davis from Dale Jackson Career Center in Flower Mound, Texas. Joe’s student Kyle Hassett also won First Place in the High School “Sports and Games” Category for his poker table “The Big Slick.

Fresh Wood category sponsors were introduced in 2019, and AWFS thanks the following for their support: Next Wave Automation, Design for Production Category Sponsor; LIGNIA Wood Company Ltd, Seating Category Sponsor; and Northwest Hardwoods, Table Category Sponsor.

The Fresh Wood 2019 judging panel – consisting of Bob Barone (Precision Drive Spindles/PDS); Judson Beaumont (Straight Line Design); Scott Grove (Imagine Grove); Wendy Maruyama (Wendy Maruyama Studio) and Jim Wellever (Michigan Career & Technical Institute) – provided a variety of perspectives to the judging process.

First Place winners in each category and at each school level received a $1,000 prize, Second Place winners received $500 and Honorable Mention winners received $250. AWFS covers project shipping and the majority of travel and hotel costs to bring the students and their teachers to Las Vegas.

Tags: awfs, AWFS® Fresh Wood Competition, Fresh Wood student finalists, Student Competetion