Maple Mountain SkillsUSA welding students raise money for fifth trip to nationals
Maple Mountain High School students and members of the SkillsUSA welding club work on various projects Saturday, June 10, 2017 in Spanish Fork. The students are doing projects for local community members to raise money for their trip to the national competition, which is in Louisville, Kentucky. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
Maple Mountain High School students and members of the SkillsUSA welding club work on various projects Saturday, June 10, 2017 in Spanish Fork. The students are doing projects for local community members to raise money for their trip to the national competition, which is in Louisville, Kentucky. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
Maple Mountain High School students and members of the SkillsUSA welding club work on various projects Saturday, June 10, 2017 in Spanish Fork. The students are doing projects for local community members to raise money for their trip to the national competition, which is in Louisville, Kentucky. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
Maple Mountain High School students and members of the SkillsUSA welding club work on various projects Saturday, June 10, 2017 in Spanish Fork. The students are doing projects for local community members to raise money for their trip to the national competition, which is in Louisville, Kentucky. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
For the fifth year in a row, students from Maple Mountain High School’s SkillsUSA club will be competing in the national welding fabrication competition.
But in order to fund the trip, the students spent their Saturday building and welding for members of the community at their fifth annual Fix-It Saturday.
“We do repair stuff, but we also if people get ahold of us earlier we will build stuff for them,” Maple Mountain High School teacher Jared Massic said. “So we’ve done benches or different yard art things.”
Over the past five years, the Fix-It Saturday has become something that community members have relied on and has also greatly assisted the students.
“This one guy who has come every year, he’s brought a trailer to basically have overhauled. He helps us out a ton. We are giving him a service and he’s helping us out,” Massic said.
All the money raised goes toward the school’s SkillsUSA program and will help the welding fabrication team as they go to Louisville, Kentucky for the national competition, which runs from June 19 through June 24.
At the competition, the students will be tested on their ability to design and execute a project that takes several lengths of metal and turns it into a welding and cutting table.
“They give a theme, specifications and a materials list, then all the groups design it. That is what’s cool. When you practice, you are actually building the thing you are going to build at nationals like eight times before you go,” Ben Warnick, one of the students participating, said.
While the competition will intense, this isn’t the first time Warnick and his teammates, Tosh Davis and Tyler Christmas, have been to nationals. Last year they placed third, and this year they are hoping to improve.
They’ve also spent 200 hours practicing on Saturdays or after school since their junior year, they said.
Welding, and specifically the fabrication aspect, caught their eye after the group took several welding classes in school.
“Welding is cool because you get to glue two pieces of metal together, but what I like about fabrication is that you start with a few pieces of metal and then we cut it and six hours later it’s a finished product that anyone can use,” Warnick said.
They also know it’s an important skill they hope to use later in life.
“It’s a very useful skill,” Davis said.
“Just having these skills we will use them for the rest of your life, even if we don’t go into welding,” Warnick added.
Massic said the students have worked hard and have shown that they know what they are doing.
“All three of them want to go to engineering as far as like a career,” Massic said. “As an engineer, in whatever field — mechanical, manufacturing or welding — they will be able to utilize this knowledge in the career choice.”
Massic added that while this year’s Fix-It Saturday has come and gone, it is a yearly event and people can reach out to him through the school towards the end of next school year if they have some items in need of fixing.
