Army climbing wall tours schools
Area high school students will get a chance to try their hand at rock climbing as the Pennsylvania Army National Guard in Connellsville tours area schools with a portable climbing wall. Sgt. Donald Daugherty, who works as an Army recruiter for Fayette County, said Tuesday the 26-foot-high wall will stop today at Frazier High School and Albert Gallatin Area High School on Friday.
“It is a recruiting tool,” Daugherty said. “It is specifically designed to take it into the schools and into the gym classes. It breaks up the monotony of just going in and recruiting.”
Daugherty said that students who are interested in the wall can climb and added that proper safety gear is provided for participants.
He said that students do not have to be interested in the military to take part in the traveling climbing wall.
“It has been very successful,” Daugherty said. “If you get one or two enlistments, that is a success and we have been getting a few.”
Daugherty said the wall is actually a trailer that is raised by hydraulics when it is used for climbing.
When it is time to move the wall, Daugherty said the wall is lowered and the trailer is hooked up to a Chevrolet Tahoe, which tows the wall to the next location.
“The kids enjoy it and it is something to get them talking,” Daugherty said.
The wall was available for students to use at Connellsville Area High School on Monday, Brownsville Area High School on Tuesday and Laurel Highlands High School on Wednesday.