The Alaska Contractor - Summer 2008

Girl Scouts earned this patch for
participating in the “Breaking New Ground
to Build the Future” event.
Girl Scouts in first through third grade built
birdhouses from kits.
ing a tape measure, mixing concrete
and stripping wire.
Jett said both sessions began with
a general overview that introduced
Girl Scouts to basic information about
safety information and what contractors
do.
The day also included four separate
Block Kids Competitions, with
between 30 to 45 scouts in each.
Jett said it was an interesting challenge
designing learning opportunities
that would be age-appropriate for
students in grades first to 12th. Girl
Scouts in first to third grades used a kit
to build a birdhouse. While other Girl
Scouts built note holders and miniature
saw horses, she said.
“Many people who love construction
are more tactile by nature,” she said.
The International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers and the Associated
Builders and Contractors of Alaska
provided apprentices at the event who
showed Girl Scout skills such as how
to crimp conduit and how to strip wire
and make connections.
Jett said it was invaluable to have
the young women apprentices working
with high school students at the event.
“They really saw them as role
models,” she said. “It’s different when
it’s a girl who is very close to their own
age talking about the opportunities in
construction.”
After this year’s event, Jett said organizers
met to talk about what they’d
like to do different next year. At the
top of that list is finding a bigger facility
to host the 2009 event, she said.
“We’d like to be able to accommodate
as many as 500 scouts.”
Jett said Girl Scouts also received
a program patch to signify their participation
and completion of the day’s
projects.
Senior editor Heather A. Resz is an Alaska
writer who lives in the Wasilla area.