Hurley school expansion gets $100,000 donation

By BRYAN HELLIOS

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Hurley — The Hurley Education Foundation donated $100,000 to help cover a portion of the approximately $1.2 million cost for the Northwoods Manufacturing expansion at the Hurley K-12 School.

District Administrator Chris Patritto said the school is in a position to fund the project without asking taxpayers for money.

“We’re very fortunate financially right now to have that fund balance where we can put something in like this in for the kids and the community,” he said.

Patritto said the foundation received a “sizable” donation through Mike Fauerbach’s life insurance policy. Fauerbach, who died in January, had named the foundation as a beneficiary.

“Mike was the president of the foundation since its inception back in 1999,” Patritto said, “He was very instrumental in getting that group going. He really had a passion for it.”

The Northwoods Manufacturing addition will expand the shop by approximately 6,500 square feet, roughly doubling its existing size.

The shop program teaches students skills they need to be competitive in the workplace, Patritto said.

The addition is not only good for students, but for the community as well, he added.

Another person Patritto credits for the project moving forward is Mike Zacharias.

“Mike was kinda the push to get the manufacturing program going,” he said.

Zacharias and his wife, Shari, recently donated $10,000 to help the school offset some of the project’s cost, he added.

Zacharias, vice president and general manager of Extreme Tool & Engineering, said he supports the program and is happy to see the project moving forward.

“We’re happy to express our appreciation for that school system and all the school systems,” he said, adding Extreme Tool has donated money in the past, but due to the recent change in ownership, the process of donating money was faster and easier to make personally rather then getting corporate approval.

Zacharias is a big fan of Northwoods Manufacturing.

“I think that’s the program the whole community should be proud of,” he said. “Shari and I and everyone at Extreme are proud to continue to support it.”

“Extreme Tool has been very generous to us over the years,” Patritto said. “For Mike and Shari to do that is just incredible.”