Countrywide Garden Ornaments has hosted work experience students from our school, Gulf Islands Secondary for over ten years. Each employee takes time training our students in the wide variety of tasks associated with the art of producing their cast objects.

Dustin and his team have honoured our students, giving them time and space to learn, practicing patience always. Over the years, we have been lucky enough to make these mentorships work in a meaningful way for both the employer and the student.


-- Maggie Allison
School-Community Liaison Coordinator
Gulf Islands School District #64



During my years crafting ornaments I have had the opportunity to bring students from our local High School into our working business environment. The goal was to teach real world job skills for application after high school. Once a year we would bring a student in, get them dirty crafting, using their hands, while learning the principles of running a business. From raw materials, to product being shipped, the students were exposed to every aspect of production. The joy was seeing these students after a few days start to take control of their situation and ask the critical questions of what had been left out of the lesson, or what was yet to come. Some of these students returned for summer work, having been trained with full school credits, they were able to walk straight onto the jobsite and start earning. The first student that we brought in still works here today. I would like to thank each and every student who was part of the program.
Dustin Carlson
Countrywide Ornaments