GETAWAY — Collins Career Center is hosting a stained glass auction tonight at the school’s Getaway campus.

All of the stained glass pieces were hand constructed by CCC students as part of a class project. The construction of the glass allowed the students to explore and learn many different mathematic concepts including geometry and finance.

“It was a real learning experience for them,” said math teacher Jami Harper. “They had to find diameters, circumferences, and identify various shapes. Plus, before we even started, we took a field trip and they learned the finances of working with glass and how much the materials cost.”

The proceeds from tonight’s auction will go to the construction of a new student health center at the school. When the students found out that their pieces may be used to help fund the upgrade, they were more than willing to help, according to post-secondary education director Jamie Chafin.

“The kids were completely into it,” Chafin said. “They are excited to see the work they’ve done be able to go back into the school and just make Collins a better place. We have some very, very generous children.”

As the project unfolded different aspects of the students’ talents and interest began to stand out, making the group project a unique bonding opportunity.

“You start to see which kids have an eye for this or that,” Harper said. “Some of them were excellent at the design aspects, others excelled at the cutting of the glass. One thing that I thought was really interesting was our boys who spend a lot of time doing auto-mechanic stuff were excellent at matching colors. It was a total group effort and allowed them to come together to create something.”

The event will begin at 6 p.m. with a dinner and the opening bids for the auction are expected to start at around 7 p.m. After the auction is over students will be able to see if their pieces made a profit.

“That’s part of our financial education,” Harper said. “They’ll be able to figure up, based on materials and labor, if their piece made a profit, broke even or whatever. So the whole process is a teaching moment.”