As one views the front cover of this winter issue of The World of Welding, it is difficult to imagine that under the perfect Christmas tree is a welded steel frame.  The high school students at McKenzie Career Center in Indianapolis, under the direction of instructor William “Ed” Wyatt, spent the better part of one school year constructing this Living Christmas Tree for the Cross and Crown Lutheran Church, located on the corner of Allisonville Road and 79th Street in Indianapolis. 

Seventy-five percent of this magnificent piece of work is steel valued at $3000.  Utilizing gas metal arc welding, students replaced an original wooden structure with steel elements, creating a stronger, safer, longer-lasting frame for the Christmas carolers among the pine branches. 

Larry Northcutt, Phillip Martin, Ismal Maldonado, Elliott Henderson, John Paul Coscrove, Andrew Kalt, John O’Haver, Richard Moit, Cory Crouch, Joshua Pyles, Joshus Powell, Jeffrey Hoskins, Justin McIntire, Travis McIntyre, and Tim Jones combined efforts and used a lot of teamwork to pull this project through to completion, just in time for Christmas 2004. 

“This is the product of a lot of hard work as the students gained real-world experience,” says Hank Dragoo, Living Christmas Tree Committee Representative.

After the steel frames and risers were constructed, a chain-link fencing type of material was welded to the frame to allow space for insertion of live evergreen branches.  Members of the church decorated the tree with lights and young carolers stood within the branches as they sang Christmas songs. 

Check the web site http://www.crossandcrownlutheran.com/ for dates and times of the performance for 2005

Photos by Hank Dragoo and Ed Wyatt