The Alaska Contractor - Summer 2008

Gravel. They were discussing a recent
cable television program that looked
at a company’s worst nightmare – a
truck full of hardened concrete. No way
around it, Norton said. You’ve got to put
some elbow grease into it.
“I’ve chipped out numerous trucks.
But hey, you get paid by the hour,” he
joked with Dauphin.
Norton put students on the hot seat,
asking them what kind of truck he was
standing next to. No, he would say again
and again, it’s not a cement truck. Cement
is to concrete what flour is to bread,
and that, he said, is a concrete truck.
Like many of the tradespeople at the
event, Norton seemed to have a natural
way with the young people. But he’s an
old hand. For years he has been teaching
sixth-graders in the Anchorage School
District through a business partnership.
He seems to enjoy a back-and-forth camaraderie
with students, but he also has
ulterior motives.
“We are having a really difficult time
forming our crews,” Norton said. The average
age of a construction worker is 47,
he said, and, by middle school, young
people are already eliminating construction
trades from their lists of possibilities.
“I tell them, some of you might not
be destined for construction, and that’s
all right,” he said. But for at least a few, it
is a perfect fit.
“We all shine in a different light,”
he said.
Colony High student Ashley Placzek
seemed to shine in that light. She handled
a cutting torch with ease outside
Raven Hall and said she wants to go
on to be an aviation mechanic. She and
the other students who came through
the station impressed Michael Yewell, a
first-year apprentice who was instructing
the torch cutting. He said the teenagers
were eager and paying attention
even while they were standing in the
long line waiting their turn.
And a few of the students went above
and beyond in taking advantage of the
opportunities the career day offered.
“I got three jobs lined up today,” said
Palmer High senior David Needham,
who hopes to someday be a plumber
or do mechanical work on the North
Slope. He said a series of family and
friend connections, combined with the
trade representatives at the fair, allowed
him to get three apprenticeship possi-