Things get sandy in the Whitaker Lab. Photo courtesy of James Dann. 

By Ty Corley 

They say one thing matters in real estate: location, location, location. Well, the property value of the Whitaker Lab just skyrocketed due to it having the best location in the school — right on the beach. That’s right, the Whitaker Lab, at the heart of Menlo’s campus, now sits right on the beach and of course, is located right next to the ocean.

While it may not look like Venice beach, a sandbox, a small inflatable pool, and a barbecue create that beach vibe everyone loves. Three ASR students, seniors Ian Loftis, John Reinstra and Julian Christensen were the initiators of this idea.

According to Loftis, Reinstra and Christensen, they started the project by creating a base of plywood on the bottom then stacking 2×4’s on all sides to create the box shape. Afterwards they added sand, beach toys and an inflatable pool.

When asked about their inspiration for the project, Loftis referred to the ASR space balloon launch last November. After they launched their balloons, they monitored the signals and data while barbecuing chicken with ASR teacher James Dann. The three boys asked Dann if they could continue to use the barbecue. “We did barbecues on Fridays,” said Loftis. “We wanted to start a tradition.”

Logically, the next step was to add the beach atmosphere to the Friday barbecues. During one barbecue, as Dr. Dann was walking by the students, he suggested that the students make a beach. The boys thought this was a good idea. “We decided to make a sand pit,” Loftis said, “to enhance the barbecue experience” John Reinstra added.

Their vision was to create a barbecue by the beach right at school. “You can’t have a barbecue without a beach,” Loftis said.

They then decided to add a small inflatable pool to complete the beach vibe. “You cannot have sand without water. You have the beach and you have the ocean. They go together great,” Reinstra said.

The future of the sandpit is in question; however, as the boys were told they would have to remove the sandpit at the end of the school year by Dr. Dann. “We want to explore the possibility of having future seniors take over the sandpit,” Reinstra said.

Loftis also praised the support from ASR teacher Dr. Dann throughout the project. “Dr. Dann was [in] huge support of the idea and even offered to reimburse us for the sand if we built the sandbox,” Loftis said.

“They used the skills [that they learned in ASR] for personal things and that is [what makes] the lab so fun,” Dann said, “having fun and learning go hand in hand.”

Whatever the future holds for the barbecue by the beach at Whitaker lab, it was sure a creative idea by those three senior ASR students trying to leave their mark on the school before their high school experience comes to an end.