Totally Trades conference engages girls in trade and technical professions

By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
    PRESQUE ISLE – From building a wooden toolbox to operating heavy equipment, the sixth annual Totally Trades conference held last Wednesday at Northern Maine Community College showed Aroostook County girls that there’s no such thing as “man’s work.”
    “We want to give girls a hands-on workshop experience to spark their interest and/or raise awareness about a career field that they may not have previously considered, as well as provide female role modes … women who can lead by example, having already succeeded in pursuing work that traditionally is viewed as ‘man’s work,’” said Suzanne Senechal-Jandreau, regional manager of the central Aroostook office of Women, Work and Community (WWC), a statewide organization committed to improving the economic lives of Maine women and their families.
    About 75 girls in grades 8-12 attended the daylong event. Formerly known as the Tools ‘n Trades (TNT) conference, this year’s Totally Trades included workshops on renewable energy and conservation, as well as self-defense.
    “There’s always the staples like heavy equipment operation and carpentry, which are very popular and the girls love, but we try to mix it up a little bit,” said Senechal-Jandreau. “Everything went very smoothly, and the girls seemed to be engaged and did well in the workshops.”
    Fort Fairfield High School students Haley Davis and Stephanie Benn participated in the bridge construction workshop.
    “We used super glue and Popsicle sticks and looked in our packet and found a bridge that we could build,” said Benn. “We made a triangular one.”
    “I love building things, but I got glue on my pants,” said Davis.
    The bridges were then tested by placing weight on them.
    “Our bridge could hold 175 pounds,” Benn said. “We were the ones who won in our group.”
    Benn said she opted to attend the conference because “it looked like it was going to be fun to learn what guys do.”
    “I want to attend NMCC’s nursing program,” she said, “but it was fun to learn about some other careers.”
    Shandy Corey, a junior at Caribou High School, attended a TNT conference when in eighth grade.
    “I did it then to help figure out what I wanted to do with my life,” she said. “I’ve since decided that I want to become an auto body mechanic … I’ve been looking forward to that since I was small.”
    Corey said she doesn’t think of auto body as being a male-dominated trade.
    “I don’t think of it as only a male job … I think of it as a job I want to put myself in. It doesn’t matter to me how many men work there,” she said. “I hope the other girls who are attending this conference learn that women can step up and be more than what men say they can. You don’t have to listen to them; you can do your own thing whether it be nursing or mechanics.
    “I’ve had a great time … it’s been awesome,” said Corey. “I’m the happiest kid alive to be here right now. I’m glad I got the chance to come here again.”
    Houlton Junior-Senior High School eighth-graders Kalista Rattray and Lindsay Blaisdell-Kenney took part in the heavy equipment operation workshop.
    “I thought it would be interesting because this is an opportunity you probably wouldn’t get any other time,” said Rattray. “Plus I want to show my brothers up.
    “People in our society think that girls can’t do that stuff because they’re too frail, but not all girls are like that,” she said.
    Blaisdell-Kenney has many family members involved in the trades, and she, too, wanted to prove it’s not a “man’s world.”
    “My dad, my uncle and my grandpa are all construction-y … so is my stepdad, and I’ve got four brothers and they’re all tool-y, and I wanted to show them that I could actually do this stuff,” she said. “In the heavy equipment operation workshop, we got to drive a steel roller. It was hard to hold the shifter down, but it was a lot of fun.”
    WWC, NMCC, the Maine Department of Transportation, Women Unlimited, the Maine Career Center, local contractors, local school representatives, and other interested community partners comprise the Aroostook Coalition for Women and Girls in Trades and Technology (ACOWITT), the sponsors of Totally Trades. ACOWITT is one of several local coalitions, united through a statewide Women in Trades and Technology (WITT) coalition, whose focus is to raise awareness of and provide support and opportunity for women and girls who pursue or are pursuing non-traditional careers in trades and technology fields.
    Funding for the activity is made possible through monies and in-kind services provided by the Maine Department of Transportation, Connect North America, S.W. Collins, Soderberg Construction, Lane Construction Corp., NMCC, WWC and Women Unlimited.
    In addition to participating in two workshop sessions, participants were treated to a luncheon and a panel discussion featuring several women working in trade and technical occupations. A group school activity based on engineering principles capped off the day.
    Senechal-Jandreau said finding the necessary funding for the conference was “more of a challenge” this year because of the economy.
    “We hope to continue to offer the conference to local girls,” she said. “We might not do it every year; we might hold it every two years, but we definitely want to keep providing girls with this opportunity on some level.”