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14 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday July 2, 2008 Living Oakville Beaver LIVING EDITOR: ANGELA BLACKBURN www.oakvillebeaver.com Phone: 905-845-3824, ext. 248 Fax: 905-337-5567 e-mail: angela@oakvillebeaver.com MICHAEL IVANIN / OAKVILLE BEAVER BUILDING A FUTURE: ATHENA Oakville Scholarship Committee co-chair Dede Hacking, left, hands out scholarship application to Winnie Law, who is enrolled in the Women in Skilled Trades (WIST) construction program at the Halton Centre for Skills Development, while her classmates Trina Burton, second right, Linda Just and Bonnie Power look through applications. Women building new future with WIST By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF In many cases, their moms were Mrs. Fix Its -- and it has led them to push the boundaries of tradition. Pushing -- or supporting -- right behind them is the ATHENA Oakville Scholarship Committee, too. ATHENA Oakville is about mentoring women in leadership roles. For the last dozen years, it annually hands out the prestigious ATHENA Award to a woman, sometimes a man, in the community who has provided leadership and leadership opportunities to women. In more recent years, its scholarship committee doles out cash to a Sheridan student, but also hands out the $500 needed for toolkits by the Women In Skilled Trades (WIST) program offered at the Halton Centre for Skills Development. "It's an honour to be here and meet you. I can't believe that in two months you built a roof," Dede Hacking, who co-chairs the ATHENA scholarship committee with Cindy Popp, recently told about a dozen WIST students at their Bay Area Learning Centre campus in Burlington. The committee members were on hand for a meeting, but also a tour of the WIST program -- during which they handed out this year's toolkit applications to students. Clad in safety glasses, the committee members not only explained what the toolkit scholarship was about, but took time to hear about the students. "I worked in parks maintenance. I was a playground inspector," said 47-year-old Linda Just of Orangeville. Betty May Evans, 34, of Mississauga was working in the decorating field for the manufacturer of custom blinds and draperies when she came across an ad for WIST and decided to look into renovation and cabinetry opportunities. Amy Moschuk, 26 of Burlington, said, "My mom was always Mrs. Fix It and I've always had a hard time keeping my paws off things. I never thought "Do any of you plan to go big, because we can help you. We want to hear if you are ready to build a company and go big." Norma Gamble, ATHENA Oakville Scholarship Committee of doing it as a job though." Bonnie Power, 31, of Milton, said she worked in a dental office, but never felt like she belonged there. Winnie Law, 51, is from Pickering, but said she is used to bucking tradition. Law explained her Chinese family's roots originate with the nomadic Hakka people of the Meixian region where the women were reputed for their big feet, as their people did not partake in the tradition of binding women's feet, and saw women work, even fight in battles, alongside the men. "My dad used to crochet," said Law, adding, "Women worked in the fields and when a battle was fought, women went out and fought, too." They are all in the WIST construction program, which is said to be like a scholarship in itself -- they are lucky to be among only a handful of a much larger group of applicants, accepted into the program -- and funded to be there. However, the moxy of entering a non-traditional field is matched only by the risk involved in leaving a job and income. "We applaud all of you, for yourselves as well as for women," said committee member Norma Gamble. It was Gamble who asked the WIST students about their visions for their future. "Do any of you plan to go big, because we can help you. We want to hear if you are ready to build a company and go big," said Gamble. The WIST students do need to pay the $500 it takes to assemble a toolkit with which to enter a skilled trade as an employee. That's where ATHENA steps in, providing toolkits -- the $500 -- to a trio of scholarship recipients. Many of the women currently in the WIST program said times are changing and being a woman in a traditionally male dominated field is not as uncommon anymore. Others said that people laugh, but it's more out of shock at the departure from tradition than laughing at the woman herself. "Guys, girls, it doesn't matter. Tools are improving. Skills can be taught. Anybody can do it," said Just. Even WIST instructor Lawrence Farrell said he grew up working alongside his mom and sisters in his family's refinishing business, so for him it's nothing new. In fact, Farrell said women offer levels of organization and detail that men seldom do. Laughing that it's women who will handcut roof rafters to fit a joint tighter than anyone he knows, Farrell said in the fastpaced construction industry it's often speed of piecework commanding the cash that gets priority. See Women page 15