BRIGHTON, Colo. — The surprises and accolades keep rolling in for a volunteer shop teacher in Brighton since he first was dubbed as a 7Everyday Hero back in 2017.
“Coach” Dave Franks is retired, and volunteers his time to teach shop class at Vikan Middle School on top of volunteering to coach three different sports teams. Without the former carpenter, the school wouldn’t have a shop program at all.
“This is not just shop. This isn’t just stacking bricks or nailing boards. I’m trying to teach a life lesson to them,” Dave said.
Denver7 honored Dave as a 7Everyday Hero in November of 2017. That started the ball rolling to major positive actions for the volunteer’s dream of teaching kids about the trades.
Mike Rowe of Discovery Channel fame (or a member of his team) saw that Hero story and decided to feature Dave as part of the Facebook Watch series “Returning the Favor.” In January, Rowe and his team traveled to Brighton, profiled Dave, and ultimately surprised him with a check for $30,000 to go towards his goal of expanding the school’s shop, as well as brand new tools worth around $10,000.
On Wednesday, another positive ripple of Dave’s volunteering came to the front door of Vikan Middle School. A local search and rescue team had seen the episode of “Returning the Favor,” and noticed that two of the marching band’s drums were repaired with duct tape.
The Rampart Search and Rescue team surprised the middle school’s band teacher with a brand new bass drum on Wednesday, with one more to be delivered soon.
“When you pay it forward you never know where it’s gonna lead and what’s gonna happen,” Rampart’s David Haskin told Denver7.
Though it came from the episode he was featured in, Coach Franks didn’t want to take credit for inspiring the donation. He did, however, also receive another piece of good news himself regarding his dream to expand the school’s shop.
“I found out today the drawings are there. It’s an awesome thing!” he said with a smile.
Permitting and construction will happen over the summer to expand the shop to three times its current size.
“I felt like we’ll do a lot with a little. I never thought we’d get a lot to work with,” he said. “This is the start of something good. We’re just in the infant stage of what we’re gonna do.”
If you're interested in watching the Thefull episode of “Returning the Favor,” it can be found at http://mikerowe.com/2019/01/returning-the-favor-fighting-for-the-trades/
