Townsend Skillsusa Competes At State
Author: Clint Watson
Townsend SkillsUSA Competes at State
Clint Watson
Last Sunday, the Townsend chapter of SkillsUSA students traveled to Helena to set up wood furniture displays and attend the Opening Ceremony for the State of Montana SkillsUSA convention.
Ross MacDonald and Tamsyn Kockler were interviewed about how they built their wooden furniture in Mr. Watson’s Wood Tech class.
On Monday morning, we were back in the school suburban at 6:30 a.m. headed for East Helena High School where Tamsyn would begin her 6-hour cabinetmaking project at 8:00 a.m. Ross and Julian Stewart attended Helena College of Technology to start their welding competition, which lasted 4 hours.
All five of our students competed in a job interview competition during the day on Monday.
Luke Tullos and Nolan Flynn participated in the carpentry competition and power equipment technology competition, respectively, on Tuesday. Ross, Tamsyn, and Julian decided to attend school on Tuesday as they had no competitions on that day and preferred to keep up with school studies. At 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, the entire group attended the Award and Closing Ceremony.
Mr. Watson, the student advisor for the Townsend chapter of SkillsUSA, was very pleased with the students' performances. Tamsyn won a gold medal for her performance in cabinetmaking, and Ross received a gold medal for his beautiful nightstand and notebook. Nolan received an honorable mention for his performance in power equipment technology. Julian scored in the final cut from over 50 welding competitors, which would have put him about 6th place.
Julian had to stick weld, MIG weld, and TIG weld aluminum, and he did quite well. A first place in cabinetmaking earns Tamsyn the right to compete at the national SkillsUSA event during the last week in June if she should choose to attend, so we will need to raise around $4,000 to allow her and a chaperone or parent to get to Atlanta, Georgia for this contest.
Thank you to all who let these students practice and compete. Mr. Watson states this program teaches students how to be organized and how to be safe in a job setting.
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PhotoCredit: Clint Watson
Image 1 Caption: Left to right: Tamsyn Kockler, Luke Tullos, Ross MacDonald, Nolan Flynn, and Julian Stewart
Clint Watson
