Totally Trades marks 10th anniversary
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — While carpentry, auto repair, plumbing/heating and welding may be thought of as “men’s work,” Women, Work, and Community is doing its part to change that way of thinking.
Staff photo/Scott Mitchell Johnson
THE 10th ANNUAL Totally Trades Conference, a daylong event designed to encourage girls in grades 8 through 12 to consider careers in fields traditionally dominated by men, was held April 24 at NMCC. The event featured sessions ranging from carpentry and cable technician to heavy equipment operation and welding, all providing an opportunity for the students to experience some aspect of the profession through a practical exercise. Here, from left: Lucie Simpson and Cassidy Soucier, freshmen at Presque Isle High School, use tools to crimp copper pieces on flexible plastic PEX piping/tubing during the plumbing/heating workshop.
The 10th annual Totally Trades Conference, a daylong event designed to encourage girls to consider careers traditionally dominated by men, was held April 24 at Northern Maine Community College.
“I don’t think when this first started that I would have projected it lasting 10 years due to the uncertainty of funding, but I’m glad it has sustained,” said Suzanne Senechal-Jandreau, conference planner and regional manager of the central Aroostook office of Women, Work and Community, a statewide organization committed to helping Maine people succeed in their workplace, business and community. “The first year we held the conference we had about 45 girls participate; today we have 125, so there’s been significant growth.
“We’ve tried different things over the years — shorter sessions, longer sessions, as well as different topics, but overall the structure has remained pretty much the same,” she said. “We want to give young women a hands-on workshop experience to spark their interest and raise awareness about some potentially high opportunity and high wage career fields that they may not have previously considered.”
Among the more popular workshops include carpentry, where the girls can build their own toolbox, heavy equipment operation and welding.
The free conference is for Aroostook County girls in grades 8 through 12.
Cassandra Lunney, 17, a senior at Presque Isle High School, takes auto body repair at the Caribou Regional Technology Center.
“My family has its own trucking/leasing business and we have our own garage, so I’ve always been driven to do something with my hands,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to sit at a desk job all day. Plus I like to build things.
“I took a tour of the Caribou center and became interested in auto body because I like painting and I’m very creative. It’s nice seeing something that’s broken and knowing that you can fix it and make it look brand new again,” said Lunney, who also served as a panelist during the afternoon group activity. “I’ve been thinking about what I want to do after high school, plus with this being my senior year, I only needed English to graduate and I didn’t want to take a bunch of study halls, so I’m taking auto body and that takes up the first half of my day.”
When she was younger Lunney said she thought about becoming a nurse or a doctor.
“Now I’m a little iffy about what I want to do,” she said. “Last year I looked at a school in Connecticut that had an auto body program. They also had a culinary program, so I applied for baking and pastry, but now that I’m in the auto body program at Caribou and I’ve learned more and I feel more comfortable and confident with it, I think I’m going to go to NMCC for auto body next year.”
Lunney said she appreciates the Totally Trades Conference and the opportunities it provides girls her age.
“I’m the only girl in my class right now, so it was nerve-wracking at first, but the guys are actually pretty nice. I know I’m good at it because my teacher tells me I am, so I know that I can be better than some of them,” she said. “This is a fun event. It’s nice hearing about other people’s experiences. I think it helps motivate you.”
This was Idella Thompson’s first Totally Trades Conference.
“I took the Crime Scene Investigation workshop in the morning and will do the work safety one in the afternoon,” said Thompson, 18, a senior at Caribou High School. “I think that it’s awesome that they have something like this. I think there should be more women in the trades because I think that we have something different to bring to the table; as women we are very detailed and structured, and we complement men very well.”
Because she takes classes at the Caribou Tech Center, Thompson was also asked to be a panelist in the group activity.
“This year I’m taking criminal justice at the Caribou Regional Technology Center,” she said, “and last year I took marketing. Both last year and this year I’m also involved in the yearbook, so I was a panelist talking about my experiences.”
Thompson is no stranger to working in a male-dominated field.
“I work at Mockler Funeral Home. I’ve worked there for four years and am a licensed funeral attendant and I’m going to go to embalming school in Cincinnati,” she said. “I’m going to go to the University of Maine at Presque Isle for two years and then transfer to Cincinnati.
“I would accompany my Dad when he went to funerals when I was younger and I thought it was another job and I liked it. I was 6 when I told my Dad that I wanted to be a funeral director, so this is something I’ve always been interested in,” said Thompson. “I like helping people; it’s our jobs to make them feel comfortable in this really awful time. I like that.”
Chelsea Winiarski, 15, a sophomore at East Grand School, and Kim Stoddard, 15, an East Grand freshman, both agreed the event was a worthwhile experience.
“This was my first Totally Trades conference,” said Winiarski. “I wanted to come last year but there were too many other girls going, so I couldn’t. I like to be able to experience new things. We’re going to do heavy equipment operation, and earlier we got to solder things together and cut pipes and I don’t get to do that every day. I’m not sure what I want to do for a career so I’m trying to open myself up to everything. Something like this conference helps open your eyes to what’s out there.”
“Having something like Totally Trades gives us background and a better understanding of what’s out there,” Stoddard said. “I like working with my hands. I like big rigs so I may do something with engineering as a career. This has been a positive experience and I’m glad I came.”
Funding for the activity is made possible through monies and in-kind services provided by the Maine Department of Transportation, Maine Department of Education/CTE, and Time Warner Cable of Maine. Local monetary sponsors include Northern Maine Development Commission, attorney Sarah LeClaire, K-PEL Industrial Services, McCain Foods USA, S.W. Collins Inc., Cassidy Orthodontics and Soderberg Construction Co., Inc.
Senechal-Jandreau said the students truly enjoy the hands-on component of the day.
“Whenever the girls have a chance to try something out and actually use their hands and make something then it’s a very experiential learning opportunity for them,” she said, “and I think that’s what keeps them coming back. Provided the funding is there, we’ll continue the program again next year. It has proven itself to be very beneficial to area girls.”
