High school students build fabricated Christmas tree alongside professional welders
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BLACKFOOT — A group of high school students learned from professional welders as they worked together to build a fabricated Christmas tree.
Four students from Snake River High School worked on the project alongside Premier Technology welding engineers for National Apprenticeship Week. The students’ instructor was Cory Bates, a welding engineer, and they also learned from different apprentices every day during the week.
“To get the opportunity to come over to a fabrication shop as a student to see what we do and then to actually get to do a part of that, it’s not something that most people get to do,” said Nicole Simpson, Premier Technology Spokesperson.
National Apprenticeship Week started on November 13 and continued until November 16. The four students who participated were Kash Palmer, Dallin Polantis, Owen Thompson and Landon Hansen.
This is Premier Technology’s second year doing a student internship. Last year, Blackfoot High School students and welders created a flag donation box for the American Legion in Blackfoot.
This year, the students and welders built a fabricated Christmas tree out of aluminum. It stands six feet tall and is decorated with ornaments crafted by the students.
Kash Palmer, a 17-year-old junior, said it was a good experience.
Palmer said that although all the students have had prior welding experience, they were able to learn new techniques from the variety of welders they worked with. Something none of the students had experience in was welding pipe, which they all got to learn how to do.
“It was sweet actually. It was really neat,” said Owen Thompson, a 17-year-old senior. “They taught us a lot and showed us some new techniques.”
Thompson’s favorite technique he learned is called ‘Walking the Cup’ which creates a curved line pattern in the weld. It’s done by lightly pressing the cup, which is the welding nozzle, against the metal and wiggling it back and forth while going down the metal.
“It was cool because it wasn’t just a sit and watch thing, they show you hands on,” Thompson said. “You would go right into it afterwards and try to copy what they did and it really helped us progress with our welding.”
Now that it’s finished, the tree will be donated to the Bingham County Christmas Tree Fantasy, a non-profit organization that’s been operating since 1978. Businesses and organizations donate Christmas trees and wreaths to it and then those will be on display from Nov. 28 to Dec. 2.
On Nov. 30, Christmas Tree Fantasy will auction off the fabricated tree alongside all of the other donated trees. Hor D’ouvres will be served at 6:30 p.m. and the auction will start at 7:00 p.m.
“We know how much time we put into the fantasy, but we absolutely could not do this without the time that people like these students are putting into (it),” said Andrea Gregersen, Tree Room Chairperson.
Palmer and Thompson appreciated that they were learning more about their craft while also working to benefit the community.
“Most of the welding we’ve done is just a weld for us to be graded so we can pass,” Palmer said. “(This was) not just for us. We’re not just trying to do the welds to pass our class. It’s actually for someone else.”
The biggest reason why Premier Technology does this apprenticeship program is because, “we want to donate back to the community,” Simpson said, also pointing out that the benefit to the community is “multi-faceted.”
Not only does the whole community benefit, but it also benefits the education of students that are developing into professionals in the workplace.
“We want to highlight apprentices during apprenticeship week and get different schools involved in this,” Simpson said. “and then we want to give back to the community by making this tree and donating it.”
Both Palmer and Thompson spoke highly of the program at Premier Technology and would be interested in working for them in the future.
“They’ve definitely got a big, nice program in there and I’ve heard lots of good things,” Palmer said.
“They showed us some of the stuff they’re working on and it’s a very neat place and I would most definitely consider going there and working,” Thompson said
Simpson also said that as Premier continues to do Apprenticeship Week, the community will continue to benefit.
“Every project we do every year is gonna be something that benefits the community,” Simpson said. “Next year we’ll figure out something else that is a benefit to the community.”
