Kevin comes from a family of talented bricklayers, his uncle, Dennis Albert, who started the brick masonry training program at Curlew Job Corps in 1979, Dennis’ father, a master mason, and several other relatives who were also involved in the industry. Kevin spent time exploring all the different training programs Curlew Job Corps had to offer, but when he shared the day with the International Masonry Institute’s bricklaying instructor, Richard See, he found that he had a natural talent for the trade. He spent the next year building on foundational skills and speed.

Kevin also trained and participated in the center’s wildland firefighting efforts. He was able to earn approximately $11,000 that summer and gain valuable work ethics and experience.

Kevin completed the bricklaying trade, bought a truck, put a down payment on a home with acreage, and immediately went to work for Great Northern Masonry, and more recently, Spilker Masonry, the biggest masonry contractor in Spokane, Washington. Kevin took to the work easily, earned his journeyman status, and soon was running work crews.

In November, 2012, Richard See retired. The International Masonry Institute held interviews to fill his position at Curlew Job Corps. You guessed it. Kevin got the job.

Kevin and his wife, Sherrie, and two of their three children will be, hopefully, spending many years in the Curlew area. Kevin is dedicated to helping Curlew Job Corps bricklaying students find their way into a rewarding and highly skilled industry.

It only goes to show that one door closed is another door opened. What could have been viewed as a major setback, turned out to be a gift.

Oh, and one last twist to the story. Jonas Elmore, International Masonry Institute Job Corps Director, in Washington, D.C., called to congratulate Kevin on his new position. Turns out that he, also, was a Job Corps graduate!

 Due to the power outage created by the storm, Curlew Job Corps students’ summer vacation was extended. Curlew’s Construction Craft Laborers instructor, Darald Staley, recognized the park’s need for help in clean-up, so when the students returned to the Center July 30, Darald and his crew went to the park to evaluate the situation. “Curlew’s beautiful State Park is unfunded, meaning there’s no state money to help in times like this.” said Staley. “Job Corps students are able and eager to help out. It gives them a sense of community. We’re also able, at that time, to evaluate their skills, ability and work ethic.”

 “We’re proud to be able to give a helping hand in the community.” reported Acting Center Director, John Booker. “It was a privilege to help Ranger Sanders. The park is such a treasure to this area. With no State funding to do the clean up, this was an overwhelming task for the park employees. It will take a lifetime to restore the trees in the park, but now it sure looks a great deal better.”

 Jim Beckwith and his certified sawyers and firefighters were essential in the park’s rehabilitation efforts. Unfortunately, Jim and his crew were not present to comment for this article, as they have been dispatched to fire activity.

 The Center’s laborers, painters, facilities maintenance, carpenters, and foresters worked for several days in State Park and Swan Lake area.

Due to the power outage created by the storm, Curlew Job Corps students’ summer vacation was extended. Curlew’s Construction Craft Laborers instructor, Darald Staley, recognized the park’s need for help in clean-up, so when the students returned to the Center July 30, Darald and his crew went to the park to evaluate the situation. “Curlew’s beautiful State Park is unfunded, meaning there’s no state money to help in times like this.” said Staley. “Job Corps students are able and eager to help out. It gives them a sense of community. We’re also able, at that time, to evaluate their skills, ability and work ethic.”

“We’re proud to be able to give a helping hand in the community.” reported Acting Center Director, John Booker. “It was a privilege to help Ranger Sanders. The park is such a treasure to this area. With no State funding to do the clean up, this was an overwhelming task for the park employees. It will take a lifetime to restore the trees in the park, but now it sure looks a great deal better.”

Jim Beckwith and his certified sawyers and firefighters were essential in the park’s rehabilitation efforts. Unfortunately, Jim and his crew were not present to comment for this article, as they have been dispatched to fire activity. 

The Center’s laborers, painters, facilities maintenance, carpenters, and foresters worked for several days in State Park and Swan Lake area.

The course is taught by Jake Miller, a total outdoorsman, who attracts students who are not only interested in working in the industry, but also likes Jake’s friendly but no nonsense approach to teaching. Throw in a few old Navy stories from his past, tales of hunting and fishing, and new welding students are, well, hooked.

Instructor Miller started welding at the age of 13. He developed his skills working on projects at the Curlew School, where he attended all twelve years. 

Welding students benefit from Jakes’ vast knowledge of welding, as he holds certifications from the American Welding Society in many different techniques. He is also a certified welding educator and AWS CWI welding inspector.

Depending on a student’s educational needs, a welding student should be able to finish the program in 8-12 months. The biggest challenge, says Miller, is that not all students who want to be welders have the ability, and reports, “They have to run a lot of rod to get good at it.”

Welding students learn safe handling and storage of compressed gasses, oxygen and acetylene welding and cutting and then on to the electrics like shielded metal arc, math, welding symbols and blueprint reading. They work with plasma cutters, air arc and finish grinders. At his point, if they can pass a test on a 3G weld with 7018, 1” plate, they go into the advanced portion of the training program that includes more blueprint reading, gas metal arc in all positions, spray arc and spool gun on aluminum. The complete their advanced course with flux core and tungsten arc, carbon, steel and aluminum on GTAW. 

Students have worked on many outside projects, mainly for the Colville N.F., like closure gates and cattle guards, miles of handrails, and custom fire crew tools. They worked with Curlew High School welders to rebuild stock panels for the fairgrounds, installed hand cuff pass-through doors at the Ferry County jail and road closure gates for the Border Patrol, as well as many other community and on-center projects.

Juan Rios, from Seattle, is finishing up his basic completion in welding and is looking forward to transferring the Hubert Humphrey Job Corps, in St. Paul, Minnesota, to go through the TCU (Transportation/Communications Union) advanced training program for employment in the airline or railway industry. “My Uncle,” says Rios, “got me excited about welding. He’s in the Boilermakers Union and travels all over the US, mainly Alaska. He will help me get into the apprenticeship when I complete my training.” And added, “Job Corps changed my life. I quit school and had a bad attitude. At Curlew, I became a leader and gained skills so that I won’t have to work at a minimum wage job anymore.”

Recent graduates include a young woman who is now a welding inspector near Portland, and young man who is working on new bases for the rebuild of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. 

If you’d like more information on Curlew Job Corps or the welding program, contact Jenni Albert, Business and Community Liaison, at 779-0547 or jalbert@fs.fed.us.

I asked Jim about his career path that led him from a young man growing up in Connecticut, not far from New York City, to the Northwest and teaching 16-24 year olds how to find careers in forest industries.

Q: Why forestry?

A: I always had an interest in the outdoors. A friend’s brother attended a forestry college in northern New York and I looked into it. I ended up going to Paul Smiths College with no idea of what I was getting in to. About half of the students that came for the program quit or did not make it. Along with regular college courses, we were taught how to log not only with modern equipment, but also with horses, surveying, timber cruising, and a variety of other forestry subjects. That program changed my life. I try to model my program with the same goal for the students who come to Curlew Job Corps. I tell my students that the forestry field is very competitive. There is a high value placed on being a hard, reliable worker. I also tell them to never stop learning about what interests them and to be the best they can be. I encourage them to look into colleges and other opportunities to advance themselves.

Q: When did you start work with the U.S. Forest Service?

A: When I was 19, I started in a student apprenticeship program that was actually an unpaid position for the summer that led me to being hired that fall. I left the Forest Service for three years between 1988 and 1991 and worked as a tree climber in the Northeast. I came back in 1991 and earned a permanent position in 1992 on the Colville National Forest. I started working with Curlew Job Corps fire crews in the 90’s. I found the students were eager to work and I enjoyed going out with them and the staff from the Center. We did many fire assignments and controlled burns together.  I started as an instructor for Curlew Job Corps in November of 2004.

Q: How hard was it to transition to being an instructor?

A: I didn’t realize I would like being an instructor until I noticed that I could take a student that knew very little about Forestry and I could share all that I knew with them and send them off with a career. It’s pretty rewarding. I think all the instructors at Curlew Job Corps feel the same satisfaction.

Q: What do the Forestry Tech students learn and what’s the average length they stay at Curlew Job Corps?

A: They learn a variety of subjects, but we focus hard on wildland firefighting, climbing skills to work for tree companies, and chainsaw use. These skills are all dangerous to obtain and take a lot of training time to develop safely. It takes about 12 months to complete my program.

Q: What is the make up and duties of the Curlew Job Corps fire crew?

A: The fire crew is made up of twenty people from Curlew Job Corps and the Colville National Forest. About fifteen students are on each crew. Students are paid an hourly wage depending on their job. Assignments can be up to two weeks. Students must be ready to work in any kind of terrain and long hours. Everyone has to be in top shape and able to deal with hardships such as lack of sleep, heat, cold, and being dirty. The crew works to contain fires by digging line, falling trees, and cutting brush. We also use hoses, pumps, wildfire engines and aircraft to get rid of heat and flame. Students must be alert at all times, for safety is the most important factor.

Q: How long has Curlew Job Corps provided fire crews?

A: There have been fire crews at Curlew since the late 1960s. We have the distinction of being the only Job Corps Center that has continuously put out twenty person crews for over forty years. Our Center is run by the Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, so wildland firefighting has always been a part of our duties.

Jim, who has served as a crew boss, squad boss, and sawyer for many crews throughout the years, says that some of his favorite times on fires have been with crews from Curlew Job Corps.

Curlew Job Corps hopes that Jim will continue to share his talents and knowledge with the student who choose this extremely popular trade, and keep turning out high quality graduates for many years to come.

“Our students need to be physically able to carry full five-gallon buckets of paint, when they leave my program.” says Storrs. “They need good shoulder and hand muscles, as well as be in overall good physical condition. That’s why I ask our students to carry the buckets. In the winter months, we go to the gym where they work out with a military p.t. program.

In the Curlew Job Corps Civilian Conservation Painting program, students learn basic sandblasting, special coating, dry wall taping, mudding and repair, set up and use of several different spray systems including airless, conventional and HVLP methods. They also learn wood finishing, stain, and sealing, how to use solvents, basics of estimating and blueprint reading, and scaffold erection and dismantle and green technology. Graduates leave with hours of hands-on experience and certificates in lead removal and OSHA 10 safety.

On campus, it’s just a revolving list of projects to paint of interior and exterior buildings. In the surrounding communities, the painters have worked on projects such as the Republic Ranger District outbuilding, the Tonasket Ranger District interior, Curlew Border Patrol exterior buildings, interior and exterior of Curlew’s Ansorge Hotel and several other non profit agency buildings. This summer, the students painted the historic Mt. First Thot fire lookout tower, in Orient, Washington, and gates that were sand blasted and painted for the Colville National Forest.  Projects for the future include exterior paint on the Slagle House and signage for the Colville National Forest.

A new sandblasting building with blast hoods and suits, make it possible to do many new sign projects. Next year, all the center’s buildings will have raised relief signs, thanks to the new equipment. The huge log that marks the entrance to the campus is now being sand blasted, lettered, stained and sealed by the painting crew.

According to instructor, Mike Storrs, his satisfaction comes from helping the students have a better life, and being able to hear good reports from employers about student being hired and keeping their jobs. “One recent graduate, Ben Petersen, is working in the IUPAT (International Union of Painters and Allied Trades) at Hanford, in the vitrification plant, glassifying radioactive sand and other materials. He’s making around $21 an hour. My latest graduate, Chris Shreck, is working in Portland, Oregon, at a John Deere factory prepping and coating equipment.

If you would like to see first-hand what training is taking place at the Curlew Job Corps, contact the center’s Business and Community Liaison, Jenni Albert, at 779-0547 to tour the facility.

The Curlew Job Corps Facilities Maintenance crew, instructed by James Moore, put finishing touches on the new Tonasket Ranger Station sign using rocks provided by a local landowner. This effort is part of a larger project to model how water-wise and fire-wise plantings can create a beautiful landscape while conserving resources and reducing the risk of losing homes to wildfires.

The Job Corps crew removed sod, shrubs, and tress, installed heavy-duty weed barrier fabric and thick chipped wood mulch ground cover. The students gained valuable hands-on experience with stone work, having replaced the main sign with a natural rock foundation, as well as constructed small stone retaining walls and a natural stone paver pathway. “The Job Corps crew has been amazing,” said Patti Baumgardner, Challenge Cost Share Coordinator for the Okanogan-Wenatchee. “We couldn’t have done it without them.”

Yet to be completed is the actual planting of the new, regionally adapted plants, as well as installation of the drip irrigation and creation of a private staff patio area behind the office. The final phase plan is the construction and placement of an interpretive sign/kiosk by the front entrance.

Tonasket’s District Ranger, Dale Olson, looks forward to working with the Curlew Job Corps on future projects.

The project was completed by Job Corps students from not only Curlew, but Welding, painting, and carpentry students from the Anaconda, Cass, Centennial, Columbia Basin, Golconda, Lyndon B. Johnson, Weber Basin and Wolf Creek Job Corps Centers.

“We are excited about expanding our partnership with the Forest Service to include this project with the Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers,” said Steve Decker, Elk Foundation vice president of marketing. “It is great to have Job Corps students from around the country working together with volunteers for the RMEF to improve habitat for elk and other wildlife. Every contribution is important.”

At Curlew Job Corps, the students produced 225 plaques that, along with others produced, will be featured in the 2011 Elk Foundation catalog and auctioned off at its chapters to raise money for conservation projects across elk country. The foundation has more than 158,000 members in more than 500 Chapters across the U.S. Funded in 1984, and has protected and enhanced more than 5.8 million acres of wildlife habitat and completed more than 6,800 projects, including permanent land protection, habitat stewardship, elk restoration and conservation education and hunting heritage.

Job Corps Centers have a unique mission supporting the conservation of the nation’s natural resources.

In Curlew’s carpentry training program, instructors, Al Eveland and Terry Miller received oak boards that the students planed, sawed, sanded, routed and laminated into wood plaques that were approximately 20”x22” and oval shaped. Before they were able to glue the metal plasma cut elk head and lettering onto the finished plaques, the center’s painting crew lead by instructor, Mike Storrs, fine sanded, stained, and polyurethaned the plaques with three top coats. “Our students took pride in their accomplishment of a project well done.” Said Al Eveland, who figured that their estimated hours on the project were 445, at an approximate value (based on current volunteer wage at $20/hour) was around $8,900. The painters also clocked over 400 hours for their part of the project, and added $8,000 to the total project.

New students to Curlew Job Corps are able to try out eight different vocational training offerings including four pre-apprenticeship trades of carpentry, bricklaying, painting and construction laborer. During Salvador’s orientation to Curlew Job Corps, he showed a natural ability for bricklaying, and chose the International Masonry Institute’s bricklaying pre-apprenticeship for his vocational training.

Salvador participated in the Center’s  Washington Business Week, (a simulated economics college course condensed into a one-week experience) and also increased his business and leadership skills at a summer advanced Business Week at Central Washington University, in Ellensburg, Washington, the following year.

Because of Salvador’s exemplary behavior, skill level, and vocational evaluations, he was chosen to participate in a local work-based learning opportunity, helping to restore a 100 year old historical cabin. Salvador’s work-based learning supervisor and owner of the cabin, Jim Hale, of North Washington Implement, Lynden, WA had high praise for Salvador’s workmanship and ability while working on a 27 foot block/rock fireplace and chimney. Salvador also got the opportunity to work with veteran journeyman bricklayer, John Urban, Urban Masonry. Mr. Urban was willing to hire Salvador for on the job training, because he had hired a previous Curlew Job Corps graduate, Adam H., from Lynden, Washington, in 2007. Salvador and Adam worked side-by-side on Mr. Hale’s project. Through this opportunity, Salvador was assured that Mr. Urban would sponsor Salvador’s application to any bricklaying local he chose to apply to.

Salvador has also served the Local #3 Bricklayers’ and Allied Trades Union, by volunteering as a bricklaying trainer/recruiter through the Spokane, Washington Construction Fair for two consecutive years, where high school men and women get a hands-on introduction to several trades, and two seasons volunteering at the Pizza, Pop, and Power Tools construction fair aimed at sharing information about jobs in the trades to Spokane area eighth grade girls. Both events were two days in length and served over 800 young adults.

To say that Salvador’s life has changed for the better is an understatement. He now has the skills and the confidence to make a better life for himself and his family as an apprentice and journeyman brick mason.