Students get the feel of careers that happen to be on wheels
Future for these kids may be on a roll
The road grader the Iowa Department of Transportation brought to the Careers on Wheels day for middle school students actually only has one seat in it — it’s for the worker driving it.
While it was parked in the lot at Iowa Central Community College’s East Campus where Iowa DOT mechanic Levi Frazier showed it off, the students found a dozen more.
On top of the tires, on the platform next to the cab, inside the cab and several locations on the adjustable blade.
Frazier smiled as they explored the vehicle, it brought back some pleasant memories.
“I grew up with it,” he said. “My dad was a mechanic and operator.”
During his presentation, he told the students how the grader is used.
“We use it for snow removal and road work,” he said.
A variety of career choices were presented by workers from a variety of fields — each one using some sort of vehicle — to do their work.
That includes Bemrich Electric & Telephone, they have a fleet of vans and other vehicles to visit customers for service calls and to work out of when doing installations.
One of their safety items, an orange hard hat with a face shield that’s tinted green.
Tyler Schofield, 11, a fifth-grader, got to try it on.
“It’s just all green,” he said of his new view of the world.
He might take a pass on becoming an electrician although current, would still be in his future as a computer engineer.
His friend Arthur Lund, 10, tried on an identical helmet.
“It was all really dull and green,” he said of the view although he didn’t seem to mind much. “I would be kind of happy with it.”
Kevin Rogers, a funeral director with Gunderson Funeral Home and Cremation Service, brought along their 2000 Cadillac funeral coach.
He had set up a table with a cremation vault on it to show the students. It did not contain the cremains of Aunt Martha, instead, Rogers had filled it with candy.
One student wanted to know how much the vehicle weighed.
“It’s about 3,500 pounds,” Rogers said. “A casket and the deceased could add another 400 pounds or so.”
The funeral coaches handling qualities change with the addition of a passenger in the back.
“It drives differently when you have a casket in the back and when you don’t,” he said.
With more than 20 participants telling groups of students about their work vehicles and careers, the day included a lunch for the students.
Eagle Grove High School School to Work program students Emily Wilson, 18, a senior, and Wayne Schope, 18, also a senior, helped out with that.
“I served the cookies,” she said. “He served the water.”
They also got to help guide the groups of students from vehicle to vehicle.
“We’re team leaders,” she said.
Both enjoyed the day and both seemed taken with two vehicles in particular, an ambulance and a Ford Mustang.
Peyton Hawkins, 11, a fifth-grade student, seemed smitten with one vehicle — a limo.
“I want to be a limo driver,” she said.
Several public service agencies were represented including the Fort Dodge police and fire departments, Webster County Emergency Management, Webster County Sheriff’s Department, Iowa State Patrol Vehicle Enforcement and, parked next to Gunderson’s funeral coach, the Webster County Medical Examiner’s office.
The students had many questions, including Brian Smith, 11, of Fort Dodge, who was quite curious about Webster County Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Kenyon’s sunglasses.
“Do you have to wear your sunglasses 24/7 like they do in the FBI?” he asked.
No, Kenyon does not.
The students also got to see something up close that most might only have glanced at a distance: Patrick Sheda, a journeyman line mechanic with MidAmerican Energy, climbing up a utility pole.
“Most of them want to try it,” Sheda said. “They enjoy it. It’s a lot harder than it looks. It takes years of practice to get good and efficient.”
While the students didn’t get to climb a pole, they did get to try a pair of heavy duty insulated gloves used by the line workers to protect themselves against electrical currents.
Elliott Sandnes, 12, a sixth-grader at Eagle Grove Elementary School, tried them on.
“They seriously just feel like toys,” she said. “Weird.”
He friend, Angelina Binkerd, 11, tried mimicking the hand movements her friend was trying while wearing the gloves.
“They’re like hands from cartoons,” she said.
Sandnes might find them a serious impediment in her current career choice, she wants to be a graphic designer or a computer coder.