BRASHER FALLS - St. Lawrence Central School’s stage crew didn’t have to worry about taking down the set from the weekend’s production of “Willy Wonka.”

Some Alcoa employees were more than happy to do it for them.

It was part of an ACTION (Alcoans Coming Together in Our Neighborhoods) grant from the Alcoa Foundation, an effort that sees Alcoa employees volunteer together for a community service project. In addition, the Alcoa Foundation matches the volunteer effort with a $3,000 grant, which the school will be able to use for future spring productions, if at least 10 Alcoa employees participate and put in at least four hours.

“I’ve done them before for the fire department,” according to Dale Nicholson, one of the Alcoa volunteers.

He has also assisted with previous efforts at St. Lawrence Central School, where his two daughters were in this year’s production.

Larry LaBarge, the technical director for this year’s staging of “Willy Wonka,” spent weeks starting in early January and leading up to the weekend building the set and arranging the lighting. This was his fourth year as the technical director for a play directed by his wife, Jamie.

“It was me and a few students if I really needed help,” he said.

The students performed in front of sellout crowds on Friday and Saturday night, and on Monday the Alcoa employees did their part for the school.

“Right now they’re tearing everything down,” Mr. LaBarge said as the sound of power tools buzzed throughout the school auditorium.

But it wasn’t just tearing down the set. The volunteers also hauled it to a space behind the school for storage.

“This year we’ll put everything out back and save as much as we can” to be used for future spring productions, Mr. LaBarge said.

The stage was stacked with pieces of the set, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, he said.

“It was actually one of our smaller sets,” Mr. LaBarge noted. “This was a little bit easier. Most of it stayed in place.”

Thousands of readers like you have made Northern New York Newspapers the number one ranked website* for local news and sports coverage in the north country.

You can continue on to this article in a few seconds, or you can visit one of our websites:

• Watertown Daily Times
• The Ogdensburg Journal
• Daily Courier-Observer