The sounds of sanding, drilling and excavating provided the background for the first annual SparkMV gathering Saturday afternoon at the Agricultural Hall.
Designed to help expose kids to the trades, the event was hosted and sponsored by the Martha’s Vineyard Builders Association, Martha’s Vineyard Vision Fellowship, Specialty Builder Supply and others.
Coordinator and Vineyard Vision fellow Anna Koppel greeted families, giving a brief safety talk, in particular the importance of wearing safety goggles when approaching any machine.
Each child was given a name-tag so the tradespeople could address them directly.
“I got very emotional this morning seeing it all come together,” Ms. Koppel said.
There were over a dozen companies represented, including Safe Harbor Marinas, Nelson Mechanical Design, South Mountain Company and Crane Appliances.
A long line of children flocked to the excavator where they could get behind the wheel of the big machine. Kids also took turns working the sander at the Premium Plywood + Specialties tent.
Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group brought touch tanks filled with baby oysters, starfish and spider crabs. Education and outreach manager Nina Montanile talked to both children and adults about what the group does and how to get involved.
“We’ve had a lot of interested kids come through with these touch tanks,” she said. “We’ve started doing things with 4-H and the after-school club too, to get kids involved.”
South Mountain Group was a popular tent; co-owner Rob Meyers and sales administrator Jack Sipperly taught the basics of how to install a solar panel.
“I feel like people are fascinated by [solar panels],” Mr. Sipperly said. “I feel like a lot of people don’t know what goes into it ... it’s cool to work with people in the community.”
Kids were able to bolt a solar panel to the roof (represented by a large slab of cardboard) to get some hands-on experience, perhaps to be used on a job site one day.
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