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Vocational schools plan ‘so many projects’ using $500,000 wood screw donation from Agawam manufacturer
- |Published: Aug. 05, 2026
Gyner Nuhia moves screws into a high-volume painting process to enhance corrosion resistance at OMG Corp. in Agawam. OMG is a maker of fasteners and screws and produces more than 1 billion fasteners per year.
AGAWAM – FastenMaster, a division of OMG Building Products, has outfitted “a generation” of aspiring carpenters by donating $475,000 worth of its MVP Multipurpose Wood Screws to local high school vocational programs.
“We’ll never run out,” said David Stevens, carpentry instructor at Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy in Springfield. “So many projects.”
Stevens took three trips to OMG in Agawam and brought back six big pallets of screws.
Putnam carpentry students make octagonally shaped decks for city parks and worked on the Trolley Pavilion and Stone House at Springfield’s Forest Park.
OMG Corp., of Agawam, a maker of fasteners and screws, has more than 450 employees in Western Mass.
Students have renovated the state police barracks. They’ve built training props for the Springfield Fire Department.
Stevens said Springfield police are seeking their own training structure as well.
The carpentry program graduates about 20 students a year.
Westfield Technical Academy and Franklin County Technical School in Turners Fall also shared in the donation. Screws also went to Habitat for Humanity and, through the Home Depot Foundation, to support ToolBank Disaster Services, a national nonprofit that provides tools, equipment and expertise for disaster relief, according to a news release.
“We’re hoping the students get to use them in real projects,” said Shaun Jennings, senior marketing manager for the brand.
“We take the trades very seriously,” he said.
The company’s FastenMaster division makes structural wood screws for contractors and also sells them to do-it-yourselfers at The Home Depot, Lowe’s and other home centers.
Decks, especially those made with recycled plastic materials, are a big part of FastenMaster’s business, Jennings said.
OMG also makes roofing fasteners for commercial buildings.
“Target stores are big for us,” Jennings said. “Our products are used to build a lot of data centers.”
The company is one of the few manufacturers making screws in the United States, he said. It makes about 1.5 billion fasteners a year with plants with Agawam and in Illinois and Minnesota.
Chapter 74 Vocational Technical & Agricultural Education
LEARNING THAT WORKS FOR MASSACHUSETTS
David J. Ferreira
MAVA Communications Coordinator
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