News Article
Patrick Lumber Manufacturing Contributes to Philomath Elementary Gym Addition
April 10, 2025The article below is published in its entirety by Brad Fuqua, Philomath News, April 2nd, 2025
Thanks to financial backing from forestry and timber industry partners, a traverse climbing wall was installed over the school’s spring break.
In a Monday afternoon assembly on the first day back after spring break, Philomath Elementary Principal Eric Beasley had a surprise for students after they filed into the school’s gymnasium.
And when it was unveiled, the reaction was deafening with cheers that in the moment might’ve been heard by passers-by on South 16th or Applegate. The school’s 370 students in grades 2-5 had a new traverse climbing wall.
“I just think that kids maybe don’t do as much — climbing trees and things like that — as they used to,” Beasley said after leading students through the high-energy assembly. “One thing we’ve noticed is that kids can build up their strength and it’s just fun. It’s fun to climb.”
Traverse climbing walls are horizontal and challenge participants to move across rather than upwards. Ropes or harnesses are not necessary with safety features such as mats for fall protection and cable locking to secure panels in place. The structure measures 32 feet in length and is a little over 8 feet high.
Sean Rowley, a mill supervisor at Wren Hill Lumber, and Morgan Foster, the director of operations at Valley Rock Gym in Corvallis, both love climbing and both played key roles in the climbing wall project.
Rowley grew up climbing trees and remembers his mom often hollering for him and not realizing that she just needed to look up to find him. Nowadays, he has two daughters in the school system who will be among those having fun on the wall. He was enthusiastic about wanting to do what he could “to give the kids some more opportunities to learn different things and try different things.”
While Beasley put the project together, Rowley approached timber industry partners to come up with the $12,000 that was needed to make the climbing wall a reality.
Miller Timber Services, Patrick Lumber Manufacturing, Starker Forests and B&G Logging/Wren Hill Lumber all contributed.
“Luckily, there’s good businesses in town, in the timber industry,” Rowley said. “They’ve all been a part of the community for generations, some of them, and so they like to give back when they can.”
The idea originated when Philomath Elementary’s physical education teacher, Jake Craig, brought up the idea of a climbing wall with Beasley.
“I said that would be great but they aren’t cheap and it could be a couple of years to fundraise, talk to the PTO about it and how are we going to allocate the funds because we’re talking something that’s upwards of over $11,000,” Beasley said.
It didn’t take long to identify a natural connection between climbing and the forestry and timber industries. Beasley approached Rowley to see if Wren Hill Lumber would be interested in becoming involved.
“He said ‘absolutely, we’d love to,’” Beasley recalled. “So he made some contacts within his partnerships and every one of them said yeah, ‘we’d be happy to donate $3,000.’ So we took in $12,000 and were able to buy the wall and still have enough to buy the 2-by-4s behind all the hardware and the cable locking.”
A project that the principal originally estimated could take a couple of years instead materialized in a matter of months.
“Having it come together that quick and actually in the same year is pretty mind bogging,” he said.
Foster is a Philomath High graduate whose professional life revolves around the activity. He attended the same elementary school more than two decades ago and went on to graduate with Philomath High’s Class of 2009.
“I haven’t been in the elementary school since I left,” Foster said. “It hasn’t changed a cent.”
He’s one of the co-owners of Valley Rock Gym, which opened in 2021 on the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Fourth Street in Corvallis. Foster provided expertise with the climbing wall’s features.
“It’s good to see climbing gyms going into all the schools,” Foster said. “I think they’ve gone into all of the Corvallis elementary schools the last few years.”
The Philomath School District’s facilities department installed the climbing wall over spring break and Beasley had nothing but praise for Joey DiGiovannangelo and his crew.
“It was one day to do the backing, the 2-by-4s and then put up the plywood panels with the coating,” Beasley said. “Then on Wednesday (March 26), Valley came back and they helped put up the features and the holds and they have the route expertise.”
The district purchased the climbing wall from EP Climbing, an industry leader based in Bend. The climbing wall installed at PES is a basic version but it can be enhanced with the availability of various climbing games and add-on equipment.
The new feature will be incorporated into the school’s PE classes.
“When you’re going around those features and up and down, you’re using your back, you’re using your chest, you’re using your legs — it’s the whole body,” Beasley said. “A lot of it is a mental workout, too, with trying to think ‘how am I going to position my body to get across this thing?’”
Beasley said the wall could potentially be used by clubs, after-school programs and for other things as well. In fact, it will likely become popular among students during rainy day recesses.
The assembly was centered around a theme of appreciation for those who donated to cover the cost of the climbing wall, including a segment that featured the participation of students shouting out the names of the four companies. A video presentation also highlighted those contributions and featured a time-lapse video of the climbing wall’s construction.
