An Alabama Rosie
Friday, November 12th, 2010You KNOW I can’t get enough Rosies! I love how June Tinker wears her bandana and dungarees proudly! What a treasure!
Archive for the ‘Inspiration’ Category
From Shuttered Paper Mill to Welding School
Monday, October 25th, 2010
This story caught my eye because of the location– near and around Norfolk, Virginia which is where my family is from– Sedley (home of HUBS Peanuts!) to be precise: I still have some shirttail cousins around those parts, and much of the brickwork, including some at the HUBS peanuts factory, was done by my relatives.
I remember this mill in Franklin. I remember most the smell, and when I commented on it (if you’ve never smelled a paper mill think rotting cabbage) my cousin Curtis said, “It smells like money to me!” The mill was where all the good jobs were in the area. 1,100 of them to be exact.
Anyway, this article is inspiring and a testament to the can-do nature of the folks in that area “Failure is not an option.”
ISLE OF WIGHT – At 59, Wallace Lewis assumed he was finished with school.
After 32 years operating a computerized band saw at International Paper Co.’s lumber mill, the Suffolk man figured he would retire in a few years. Then reality hit.
International Paper threw a kink into Lewis’s plans by shuttering its lumber mill in May 2009, forcing him into an early retirement and idling 1,100 workers. He was too young to tap his Social Security benefits, was struggling to pay his family’s mortgage and bills, and had too much empty time on his hands.
So from mill worker– some with 25 years or more experience– to electrician, plumbing and HVAC certification, and yes, WELDER! it is possible to teach “old” dogs new tricks.
Rosie’s Girls Can Do It!
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010I recently ran across this awesome summer day camp for girls (too bad there isn’t one for adult women!) ROSIE’S GIRLS is a three week day camp for girls (6th-8th grade). It a place to learn skills (carpentry, welding, etc) that build confidence. PLUS they get to use power tools! This is an awesome way to introduce girls to career options that even today don’t seem accessible to women (did you know that as of 2006 the Department of Labor counts only 6% of professional welders as women?! ***)
FACT: women can weld just as good (and sometimes better) than men. Brains, not brawn makes for an excellent welder… and check out these girls WELDING!
***HOLY SH&%$# *** I just looked up more recent statistics (from 2008) and the percent of women employed in the welding/ metal industries has GONE DOWN! WTF? check it out:
Welding, soldering and brazing… 4.7% women (5.9% in 2006)
Sheet metal workers…. 4.8% women (3.1% in 2006)
Pipelayers, plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters…. 1.5% (1.9% in 2006)
Tool and die…. 1%
Structural Iron / Steel… 0.9%
You can check out these reports and many others about women in nontraditional occupations from the Department of Labor online.
And lets brainstorm! what can WE do to make these “nontraditional” occupations “traditional?”
WASPs
Monday, April 5th, 2010No, we’re not talking about not insects, nor the Protestants. These are the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) who served during WWII (the first to ever do so) — right alongside the Rosies who helped build the planes in which they flew!
Female WWII aviators honored with gold medal
By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – A long-overlooked group of women who flew aircraft during World War II were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday.
Known as Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, they were the first women to fly U.S. military planes.
About 200 of these women aviators, mostly in their late 80s and early 90s and some in wheelchairs, came to the Capitol to accept the medal, the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress.
In thanking them for their service, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said these women pilots went unrecognized for too long.
“Women Air Force Service Pilots, we are all your daughters, you taught us how to fly,” Pelosi said.
In accepting the award, WASP pilot Deanie Parrish said the women had volunteered to fly the planes without expectation that they would ever be thanked. Their mission was to fly noncombat missions to free up male pilots to fly overseas.
“Mad Rantings of a Woman Welder”
Monday, March 22nd, 2010I want to steal the name of her blog. Seriously.
This is a fantastic look into the workings of a women welder’s mind written by Wendy Welder. Perhaps she is related to our good friend, Joe Welder??
How it all started.
Even as a little girl, I had dirt under my fingernails and grease smeared across my face. I grew up in the garage, at the shop, out in the yards with my Dad. Dad worked in tire retread and his hobby was cars, so I saw a lot of cars, a lot of trucks and a lot of men in my childhood.
Weekends were spent at the race track or at car shows. Dad raced a 1972 Nova before I was born, and I think everytime we went to the track he wished it was him out there. It wasn’t long before I wished it was me.
My first car was a Chevy Nova. I drove it everywhere, and I loved it like it was my child. But, it was my first car, and I was just learning how to take care of it and how everything worked. My parents always reminded me to check the oil and I always forgot. When the engine blew, Dad made ME replace it. (Of course he helped) And while I had always been around when he worked on cars, seeing the daylight through the hole in the block where the rod had flown through, and the whole process of the replacement, the sense of accomplishment when the car was up and running again, made me love that car even more and made me want to spend the rest of my life around cars.
One Woman’s Trash…
Monday, March 15th, 2010It’s never too late to start welding — that’s the lesson we can learn from Cynthia Daniel, who has a yard full of metal art to prove it!
Dallas welder transforms trash into garden sculptures
Monday, February 15, 2010
By DIANE REISCHEL / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning NewsCynthia Daniel keeps a gangly old muffler in her carport, a silent lump she communes with, waiting for it to talk.
With age comes patience, says Daniel, a graphic artist for a Dallas publishing firm and a constant dreamer of trash. She’s more than a dreamer.
In recent years, this late-blooming welder has twisted, fired and honed a colony of eye-popping yard mates, some migrating to local sculpture shows, others charming their way into admirers’ back yards.
Her lively characters morph from the lowliest of throwaways, “found metal” she lifts from country lanes, junk yards and on quests through East Dallas for “big trash.”
Scraps speak to her, and she listens.
“I look at them every day in my yard, and they become something,” she says of her procedure for turning tractor springs, grilles or saw teeth into fish, flamingo or duck.
“Lately, I’m into fan blades. They become petals on flowers.”
The Kids Are in Charge
Friday, March 12th, 2010In Standwood, Washington, they’ve got it a little backwards — here, the students have become the teachers. The teens are teaching the adults how to weld!!
Stanwood students teach adults welding
By GALE FIEGE
THE DAILY HERALDSTANWOOD, Wash. — When a group of high school welding students decided to offer a class for the community, they never imagined having to turn people away.
“It was amazing to us. We had 25 people on a waiting list right off the bat,” said teacher Darryl Main, adviser for Stanwood High School’s Agricultural Mechanics Club. “The community welding course has been so well-received, we might have to run another one this spring.”
For $60, adult students get 12 hours of instruction focusing on shielded metal and gas metal arc welding. Proceeds from the class help fund the club’s field trips and contest travel expenses.
On a recent Thursday, the garage doors to Stanwood’s ag shop were flung wide open. Twenty adults in protective helmets, coveralls and heavy gloves huddled over metal pieces, torches in hand and sparks flying, while teenagers coached them one-on-one through the welding process.
“It’s great to watch the kids teaching, and the adults enjoying learning from them,” Main said. “There’s no better way to learn than to teach. You can just see the self-esteem of the kids go up. They feel empowered and that’s pretty dang cool.”
Nearly half of the adult students in the class are women.
Student Bike Build
Monday, March 1st, 2010It must be a dream come true for students at the Western Dakota Technical Institute. I mean, since when do you get to custom build a motorcycle during class, and get credit for it?!?
WDTI students gear up for bike build
Barbara Soderlin Journal staff
Posted: Thursday, January 28, 2010 9:15 amWestern Dakota Technical Institute welding students will be able to add “custom motorcycle builder” to their resumes, thanks to a program announced Wednesday.
A bike, built by a team of WDTI students working under custom builder Michael Prugh of Prugh Design in Black Hawk, will be auctioned at the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally Legends Ride this summer.
“I don’t know bikes, but I’m hoping to learn,” said welding student Don Pyn, a custom hot rod enthusiast. “It’s along the line of what I want to get into when I’m done with school.”
Rod Woodruff, owner of the Buffalo Chip campground, which created the charity ride two years ago, announced the program in the technical college’s welding lab surrounded by welding students.
He said the partnership, called the 2k10 Challenge, would help develop a workforce skilled in motorcycle building, which would benefit the growing number of bike builders in the Black Hills.
Graveyard Shift Welding Classes
Friday, February 26th, 2010Clackamas Community College offers welding classes seven days a week. Their most popular time slot? The “graveyard shift”.
Welding school offers night shift to fit busy schedules
Story Published: Feb 3, 2010 at 4:30 AM PST
By Chris Parker for KVAL.comOREGON CITY, Ore. — The sun isn’t necessary for students welding at midnight: the blinding electric arcs provide enough light at Clackamas Community College metal shop.
John Phelps and David Williams instruct welding classes during the graveyard shift, from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m., to accommodate an enrollment demand that has surged over the last year.
According to Phelps, enrollment increased 60 percent since last fall term, making it difficult for students to take welding classes during normal hours.
“Because the enrollment shot up so high, there was no other way to accommodate these needs,” Phelps said. “We already offer classes seven days a week. The only other time slot we didn’t offer was this late at night, and so we wanted to give it a try.”
At first the graveyard classes were only held two nights a week, but since being offered spring term of 2009, more students have become interested in the late night class. Now, the graveyard class is offered Monday through Thursday.
After High School
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010College isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, if you’re looking for a career in welding, a technical school might just be the place to go.
Technical schools give students a leg up on a career
By FARAH TAMIZUDDIN/VOICE CORRESPONDENT
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER
Posted Jan 25, 2010 @ 11:00 PMSeventeen-year-old Konner Fenwick doesn’t want to go to college.
She isn’t taking any more history or English classes.
The Springfield High School senior doesn’t want to get a job after she graduates in June, either.
Her plan? Attend a technical school.
“School’s never really been my thing,” Konner said. “I think I’ll enjoy this a lot.”
More than half of the country’s high school seniors each year head to college right after graduation, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
However, 30 to 40 percent of seniors find their footing elsewhere.
