Skills Work Tour

Notes from the road...

Greetings from the wintery North!  We are 3 days into our “Skills Work!” Tour and the snow hasn’t stopped falling since we arrived! 

About the Tour: 200 Young Women from different northern communities - 8 Women in Trades (Role Models) - Together for 4 days in 2 northern communities - Engaging in hands on experience of the trades and envisioning the trades as viable career choices

 Role Models:  Hailing from Regina, Saskatoon and La Ronge (left to right) – 

Lori Bell, Aircraft Maintenance Engineer; Devin West, Carpenter; Pat Fayant, Carpenter;
Diane West, Carpenter; Andrea Dorosh, Carpenter; Rhealene Wagner, Machinist,
and Valerie Overend, Carpenter (missing from photo).

Our first day of the conference was held in La Ronge at the Senator Myles Venne School.  We had girls from La Ronge, Air Ronge, Hall Lake, Stanley Mission, and Grandmother’s Bay join us in the school gymnasium where they were immediately broken up into groups of 8 with our Role Models, and formed our teams for the day: the Cat’s Paws, Monkey Wrenches, Fish Tapers, Crow Bars, Saw Horses, and Alligator Clippers.

 In no time at all we had the girls ‘on the tools’ in our ‘Try-a-Trade’ activity.  Within just 2 hours they were putting together forms for concrete, pouring concrete into their forms to make tiles, and decorating their tiles at the ‘Mosaic Station’.  The girls worked with metal at the ‘Sheet Metal Station’ where they made charms for the bracelets they made at the ‘Electrical Connectors Station’ (which offered an introduction to the electrical trade).  Last but not least the girls learned to cut and file copper tubing into fashionable rings at the ‘Copper Pipe Station’, giving them a little taste of the plumbing trade.

Building Tile Mosaics!

 It was a fun and busy morning!  Everyone had their favorite station, and by the afternoon I had conversations with many of the girls who expressed interest in attending school for the trades!

With some food in our bellies we ventured into our next big activity for the day – an engineering challenge called “Junk Yard Wars”.  Here the girls really had to put on their thinking caps and problem solving skills.  Each team was given the same set of instructions and materials and about 1½ hours to build a bridge which would function under the weight of a heavy lead pipe, their ‘vehicle’, travelling over it.  Each team rendered a successful bridge, and amazingly all had their own unique designs.  Such a great reminder that no two minds think alike!  The girls had a chance to show off their creations to each other and a panel of judges in a ‘face-off’ for 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place!

There were a lot of big smiles by the end of the day.  Lots of great prizes were handed out throughout the day thanks to the many donations made by our sponsors for the event.  What a successful start to our tour!

Here’s what some of the girls had to say about their day:

“It was awesome!  I loved it!”

“The activities were fun, nice meeting new people and trying new things.”

“The workshop was fun and really awesome!  It was the funnest day ever!”

“Inspired by the women that prove they can do anything like men and even better!”

Great Job Girls!  Thanks for all your hard work!

Next up:   We’re northbound to Buffalo Narrows, where I’m sure we’ll encounter even more fluffy white stuff!  Stay tuned!

Junk Yard Wars - The teams developing their strategies and assembling their masterpieces!