Carol Taylor shows off horseshoes she’s planning on using as decorations for her camping trailer, named Isabella, that was renovated by a group of young women welders at Tri-Tech Skills Center in Kennewick, Wash.
Courtney Flatt / NWPB
For years, Carol Taylor has watched from her car window as a Kennewick man slowly turned an old school bus into a camping trailer. She said it now looks like a “luxury hotel.”
By this time, she’d retired. Still, the 77-year-old wanted to get out and travel, but she didn’t want to sleep on the ground anymore. As the bus came together, she thought that she’d be able to do something similar.
In fact, she’d done it before — with four other campers. So, she started scouting around for parts.
“ I searched and started finding little bits and pieces of campers. I went to the junkyards and started saying, ‘Hey guys, what have you got for wrecked campers?’” Taylor said.
Then one day, she hit the jackpot. She found an old horse trailer in Irrigon, Oregon.
“So I kept puttering along and finally decided just one day (that) I was just going down to Irrigon to look at it,” she said.
The horse trailer was a mess, Taylor said. The owners paid her $50 to take it away.
Carol Taylor shows off the original horse trailer she got in Irrigon, Ore.
Courtney Flatt / NWPB
An avid upcycler, Taylor said she loves old things, loves giving them new life. However, the horse trailer project was bigger than she’d taken on before, and she needed help.
Taylor turned to the local technical high school, Tri-Tech Skills Center in Kennewick. She said she’d give them the trailer to work on and a $1,000 budget.
There was one catch: Taylor wanted girls to be forewomen, or to help lead, the project.
“That was a skill that I wanted to learn because my dad was a welder,” she said. “They wouldn’t let me weld when I was in high school. Girls took home ec.”
Now, not so much.
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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, last year women made up around 6% of the welding, soldering and brazing workforce. That might not sound like much, but the number of women working in trades has grown steadily in recent years.
This year, five girls are in this semester’s welding class at Tri-Tech, said instructor A.J. Spaniel. Three of them are seniors.
In the large shop, the smell of burning metal and a sizzling buzz fill the air. Sparks fly.
“There’s a little bit of a warp issue there. That hinge,” Spaniel said, looking at the work that had been done.
Welding instructor A.J. Spaniel, right, inspects the trailer his students are helping transform.
Courtney Flatt / NWPB
“You want to take that out and make a new one?” asked senior McKaia Gorman.
The students said they all like working on this project. It’s a way to give back to the community.
”There’s definitely a vision to it. It’s just taking longer to get there than expected,” McKaia said.
There’s ordering parts and materials, she said. And then they wait. Once they’re delivered:
“Then (there’s) trial and error, having to cut out different pieces, and then they don’t fit properly, so those are scrapped to another project,” McKaia said. “(Then) we have to re-cut something out.”
The seniors, who graduate in June, are finishing up their second year of the welding class. But, McKaia said, it’s a lot more than just your average high school shop experience.
“Here, you actually get the hands-on learning. It’s a lot more like an actual professional training than just a high school class,” she said.
Every year, these classes fill up in about 30 minutes, Spaniel said. They plan to double the class size in the future.
The instructors also help the students get job shadows. Two years in, Spaniel said he hopes they’ll get their first certification.“ The burns, the heat. It’s cold. It’s too hot. I don’t hide any of the reality of the job,” he said.
An artistic detail some of the students designed for Carol Taylor’s trailer. The horse is a nod to its origins as a horse trailer.
Courtney Flatt / NWPB
They’ll likely end up with a job that comes without a stack of student loans.
“I like working with my hands, being able to see a project go from start to finish,” McKaia said.
“(And the) money,” senior Aiden Larsen said.
Wages for welders vary in Washington, Spaniel said. He said multi-process certified welders “typically make $70,000 to $140,000 a year, when they reach journeyman level, in the Tri-Cities area.”
After graduation, these seniors say they plan on continuing welding at a local community college. “I’ve already set my path that way,” McKaia said.
It’s also nice to have other female students in the class, said senior Madelyn Hogan.
“ When I first came in here, I didn’t know anyone, and now I’ve got friends,” she said.
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Taylor’s trailer rebuild is the biggest project they said they’ve ever completed, much larger than reattaching a hitch to a truck or fixing a fence. The class is adding a bathroom and a place for a shower, among other amenities they dreamed up.
Hogan said there’s been a few little frustrations, like: “Trying not to yell at the guys when they mess up.”
For other students interested in welding?
“I think I’ve learned a lot (welding),” Madelyn said. “Not to give up and just keep going because if you give up, you’re not going to get anywhere in life.”
Welding student Madelyn Hogan, a senior who attends Tri-Tech Skills Center in Kennewick, Wash., learns a new welding technique called carbon arc welding.
Courtney Flatt / NWPB
McKaia said it’s all worth it, especially giving back to Taylor.
“ She’ll have somewhere warm to sleep and a comfier bed than a cot,” McKaia said.
Taylor often brings the students cookies, Spaniel said. Perhaps it’s an excuse to peek at their work?
“ She gets so excited every time she sees a little bit of progress. She’s just amazed,” Spaniel said. “So it feels good being able to do something like this for her.”
In her flower-filled yard, Taylor said she planned to name her trailer Isabella.
She said she hoped her project could help show the students what they could really do. It’s inspired her as well.
“ I think I’m going to take a welding class,” Taylor said. “I can reach out beyond my comfort zone. Even at my age, you never stop learning.”
She said she hopes to learn a welding technique so she can hook a bicycle on the back of her new camper this summer — and hopes to head to San Antonio to finally see the Jazz’SAlive festival in person, rather than on PBS.
“Before, (seeing the festival) was totally out of reach, just a dream. Now, I just have to save up money to do it,” Taylor laughed.
Courtney Flatt is a reporter with Northwest Public Broadcasting. This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
It is part of OPB’s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit our journalism partnerships page.
