Stanwood students teach adults welding

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.

Linda Coons, 58, a retired teacher from Camano Island figures she'll pick up enough skills to make some metal art for her garden.

"These high school kids are well-taught, knowledgeable and extremely patient," Coons said. "We hear a lot about the negative side of teens. It's great to see a positive side."

Tom Courtney, 67, also of Camano Island, is taking the welding class as a refresher.

"I learned how to weld 50 years ago. I needed to figure out how to do this again," Courtney said. "The class is a real neat opportunity."

Kaity Hampton, 18, came up with the idea for the community welding course as part of her senior project. A second-year welding student at Stanwood, Hampton is among a handful of girls in the school program and is considered to be one of the state's best high school welders.

She put together the course curriculum, got permission from the school board and encouraged her classmates to get involved in teaching the community welding course.

"Most of our adult students had never struck an arc before, but they are learning fast," Hampton said. "They want to be proficient enough to work on their own and make minor repairs at home."

One of her own current projects is making a roll bar for her 1980 Toyota 4-by-4 truck.

"Once you get started in welding, you want to get better. Mr. Main cares for us, and that's why we have so much enthusiasm for this," Hampton said.

Next year, Hampton plans to attend Bellingham Technical College to study welding.

That's what Main likes to hear.

"Some of these kids will go to a tech school or junior college, get out and make more money than people with four-year liberal arts degrees," Main said. "Our community welding course is a good showcase for what we do here. We have a lot of pride in our program and our adults students get to see it firsthand."

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Information from: The Daily Herald, http://www.heraldnet.com