Saco's Caves Helps Craft MHS Basketball Court

The Malta High School Gymnasium floor has been completely replaced thanks to the fine work of High Performance Floors (HPF), a company from Lewistown.

But one Phillips County student, Marshall Caves, a senior at Saco High School, has been a very important part of the project as he has been helping HPF owner and operator Steve Lalum put the floor together.

Saco's Rhonda Wittmier penned a letter to the PCN, explaining Caves' role in the project, and the camaraderie that Caves and Lalum have built together.

Here is Wittmier's letter:

The Malta High School is having their gym floor redone by High Performance Flooring out of Lewistown Montana. The same company that completed the floor in Saco the summer of 2022. Marshall Caves (Saco) is going to be a senior this year, he was hired on with Steve Lalum owner of HPF, as a student-employee for Saco, that went on to become a traveling employee due to his work ethic. Today is the day they are putting the Malta mascot on the floor.

It has been such an inspiring working relationship to watch. Not only is Steve his employer, he cares about Marshall. Through the 2022-2023 school year, Marshall would be working for Steve on weekends, from refinishing gym floors , touching up floors, ranching, cleaning the flooring machines and preparing for the next job. Steve would regularly call Mrs. Funk to check on Marshall's academics, to make sure he wasn't falling behind on his schoolwork, while working during the school year.

This has shown Marshall that attention to detail, hard work, being accountable, honest and humble, trustworthy, caring about the job he does, and caring about the business' equipment creates a future of opportunities. People that know Marshall, know he is always there to lend a helping hand no matter the duty. For the last year he has pulled the reflooring trailers, and campers all over the state.

Marshall has also juggled working for Sleeping Buffalo Hot Springs & Resort. At the Sleeping Buffalo he worked numerous positions from groundskeeping to front desk, to cleaning and setting up the ice castles on the lake in the winter. Marshall's humble work ethic speaks for itself.