To Nashville on rusted horseshoes: State gold for coat rack project takes Crimmins to Nationals

Micayla Crimmins didn’t think old barn wood, rusted horseshoes and goat hide would take her far, but together, those items will carry her all the way to Nashville.

After joining FCCLA last year, Crimmins, a senior at Saratoga Middle/High School, worked up to entering a project for the state competition. Her project, a coat rack made of recycled barn wood, goat hide, paint, nails and horseshoes won her a gold medal. She will enter her project in the national competition July 7 in Nashville.

“I seriously did not have any intent of winning state,” Crimmins said. “I was doing this project to feel out what FCCLA was like, and all of the sudden I won state.”

However, FCCLA sponsor Linda Fisher-Perue said she was not surprised Crimmins won state. The day before the state competition, Perue was making her own predictions of who was going to take home gold and silver medals. Crimmins’ project was one of her predictions.

“This is her really cool project that she designed using all recyclable items that she has on her ranch,” Perue said.

Crimmins entered her project in the recyclable materials section of competition because all of the items she used to make the project were things she gathered from her ranch.

After Crimmins built her coat racks, she still had a lot to do to prepare for the state competition.

She had to present a storyboard showing her assembly process. She also had to have several documents on her table at the competition. Those documents included her project identification, planning process, past itemization, her recycle itemization, time log and a sketch of her project while coming up with ideas and her marketing plan.

“They have to try come up with a marketable item, so her project also included a material analysis she used in her project,” Perue said.

Crimmins said preparing her project was a learning experience, and opened her eyes to recycling and marketing. Before the project, Crimmins didn’t think much of recycling, she said. But all of that has changed.

“My thoughts have changed a little bit,” she said. “I didn’t spend a dime on this project. It was kind of cool that I could make a product and sell it for $60. It opened my eyes to what kind of profit people can make by finding free materials.”

Crimmins, who is also a member of FFA, 4-H and the National Honors Society, joined FCCLA for many reasons. One, it will look good on her resume, but also, FCCLA allowed her to become more involved with her school and spend more time with her mother, she said.

Crimmins plans on going to Laramie County Community College to study animal science. She later wants to transfer to the University of Wyoming and finish off her degree in animal science with an emphasis in education.

“My dad studied animal science, so I think I wanted to follow in his footsteps,” she said.

Although Crimmins does not want to teach in the classroom, she will get an emphasis in education because she wants to work in an extension office, she said.