Roadside Giant

This project started as a collaboration between a variety of business and the local vo-tech school. As the project progressed, MDL took the lead on this project management. Mari-Pat Lingsch designed the Quarter, a student manipulated the digital file, MDL staff laser cut the parts, and the welding students assembled the parts. We invited the welding students to tour and spend two working days at the plant. They worked under the strict supervision of the weld department lead and QA inspectors as well as the guidance of their teacher.

 

A 20-foot tall, 1,600-pound steel quarter with George Washington’s profile is the newest of five Roadside Giants along Pennsylvania’s 200-mile Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor. The quarter is located east of Bedford, Pennsylvania, near the Down River Golf Course in Everett. It was dedicated in May 2009 to acknowledge students from Bedford County Technical Center who were involved in its creation. The sculpture was created at MDL Manufacturing in Bedford; owners Mari-Pat and Doug Lingsch invited the students into their plant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bedford Elementary Bison Project

Driving down Business Route 220, Bedford Elementary is hard to miss. It's the building with the six bison in front. The life-size bison sculptures - made out of steel donated by MDL Manufacturing - are this year's fifth grade art project, and they will decorate the school yard for years to come, art teacher Lisa Miller said.

 

"There are people who feel like the arts are just a frill," Miller said at a dedication ceremony Thursday. "But man's first writings were not words. They were cave wall drawings."

Every year, Miller designs an art project for her fifth graders. Past projects have included murals and papier-mache sculptures, many of which decorate the school's hallways.

"We started here 10 years ago with bare walls," elementary principal Daryl Clark said with a laugh.

 

But Miller had never done a project with metal until Doug and Mari-Pat Lingsch, the owners of MDL Manufacturing, approached her. The couple's oldest daughter, Leah, is in fifth grade this year.

 

"When we first came to the school, I saw all this cool and amazing art and was pretty much wowed by it." Mari-Pat Lingsch said. "I thought, I have to meet this art teacher."

 

The Lingsches, who moved their metal fabrication company from central Maryland to Bedford about three years ago, offered to donate the material for the project.

 

"This year, we're doing an Egyptian and Roman theme, and I always try to do art projects that tie in with that," Miller said. "The bison ties in with caveman art."

 

The bison also is Bedford Area School District's mascot. About 150 students in six classes designed the sculptures on paper first.

 

"I liked that we all got the chance to do the parts of the bison," fifth-grader Joey Hullihan said. "My part was the nose."

 

After the sketches were completed, and imported into Adobe Acrobat, students went to the MDL plant to watch the laser-cutting of the sculptures.

 

"We had a lesson on what a laser beam is, and how you get from a sketch to the electronic file," Doug Lingsch said. "It's been an awesome process."

 

"The biggest bison is about 8-feet-long by 5 1/2 feet wide, and they weigh between 200 and 500 pounds," Mari-Pat Lingsch said. "I think it's a great art exercise with the kids, and it really means a lot, especially because this is permanent," she said.

story courtesy of Altoona Mirror staff writer, Allison Bourg

 

 

 

 

 

Bedford Elementary Matisse-Inspired Totem Pole

The art project for the 2008 and 2009 school year was as exciting as it was extensive in its design, fabrication and assembly. The BE 5th grade class designed the 28 foot brightly painted sculpture and MDL brought their design to life.

 

The students toured MDL and watched the laser cut the sculpture pieces. Art teacher Mrs. Miller worked closely with MDL staff to ensure the vision of the students totem sculpture was correctly formed and assembled. This project involved site planning and preparations, outsourcing auto-body painting and coordinating with an installer and structural engineers.

 

This vibrant sculpture can be seen from Rt. 220. Stop by Bedford Elementary for a close-up of this Matisse-inspired art peice.