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TEACHING
STUDENTS TO
WELD IS REWARDING
By Martin Rice
Welding Instructor at Dale
Jackson Career Center
and a member of Iron
Workers Local #263
| When Kirk Jordan from
Siemens Corporation
donated thousands of dollars of steel, I knew there
would be all kinds of neat projects made in our high
school welding class at
Dale
Jackson Career Center. One of the first big
projects was Mike Hilliard’s Tornado Picnic Table.
I call it a Tornado because it was made out of
2-inch by 4-inch, 3/16-inch wall tubing, and while a
tornado may destroy everything else in its path, I’ll
guarantee that this table would not be moved! I know
this because I had to help him unload it! My pick-up
was almost doing a wheelie, even with my air shocks
pumped up to heavy load! |
Martin Rice and Silder Ancheta. |
Silder
Ancheta used some of the steel to make a treasure chest,
complete with a plasma-cut skull and crossbones. That piece
won both a State and a National competition. When he
graduated and joined the Army, he gave it to me. After
trying to figure out a proper place and use for it in the
shop, I decided to let my students show our appreciation for
his service to our country by making it into a combination
barbeque/fireplace.
Silder had
already done one tour in Iraq and as we were finishing it,
back to Iraq he was sent. So I left it on display in the
shop, as a good luck charm waiting for his return.
Almost every
week, an ex-student will stop by to let me know how they are
doing. It is always fun to see them and hear about their
work, although sometimes it takes me a bit to recognize them
when they’ve changed so much. Right before Christmas I
looked up from my work and there was Silder. Seeing his
smiling face certainly gave new meaning to “a sight for sore
eyes!”
I took him
out for a steak and a brew and we talked old times.
Afterwards, I showed him the barbeque/fireplace and told him
it was his. The dang thing weighed a ton and I wondered
aloud in class how we were going to get it to his folks’
house.
That’s when
a couple of my present students went the extra mile.
Michael Depauw, and Stefon Roberts came up that evening and
helped us wrestle that barbeque/fireplace into and out of my
truck, across a wet lawn, and finally onto the back porch.
It was hard work and really made me appreciate my students
helping when they didn’t have to.
Teaching in
the welding trade is a VERY rewarding career!
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