You remember the fun story about DraftSight enthusiast Richard Williams, a.k.a. “Corporal Willy,” and his pasta bridge project in the Nevada schools?
Well, the Barilla pasta company was so tickled by this engineer’s passion for education that they just sent him a complimentary case of Barilla Fettuccine!
Corporal Willy made the above photo with Photoshop to celebrate his continued leverage of noodles to teach kids about the world of civil engineering. There aren’t THAT many boxes in a case.
If your life depended on getting across this pasta bridge, wouldn't YOU prefer Fettuccine over Angel Hair or plain Spaghetti?
The Corporal, a retired U.S. Marine and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) electrician, is a dedicated volunteer in the Las Vegas public schools – a system that has been devastated by a series of massive budget cuts. He’s been an enthusiastic advocate of teachers adopting DraftSight, our free professional-grade 2D CAD tool, to get kids excited about design.
“The doorbell rang while I was in the shower and my wife received a gift from the Barilla company,” says Williams. “Can you imagine what I can build with this much Fettuccine?”
Barilla naturally gets plenty of inquiries about recipes and coupons, but it isn’t often that they hear about such an innovative application of their products.
“Ciao Richard,” the company wrote. “We were inspired by your passion and creative efforts to overcome the budget challenge in your teaching community so that you could continue to teach students about engineering. Encouraging kids to be creative and solve problems is a value that will live with them for a lifetime.
Although it is a small token of our gratitude for what you continue to support and accomplish, we hope that this case of Barilla Fettuccine will help some of your students build unbreakable bridges.”
“Wait till you see what comes next,” says Williams. “Bon Appetite!”
We can’t wait, Corporal!
And thanks, Barilla, for supporting this inspiring idea that can be replicated in other schools, too.
