Female Students Sweep Gold Medals in SkillsUSA California Woodworking Contests

ANAHEIM, CA — SkillsUSA California hosted the State Cabinetmaking and Introductory Woodworking championships on Saturday, April 23 at Chaffey High School in Ontario, CA. Staff and industry volunteers from the Association of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers (AWFS) and the Society of Wood Manufacturing (SWM) served as contest coordinators, judges, and with overall contest support.

Over $10,000 in contest supplies, tools, and giveaways for students were donated by Blum Inc, Colonial Saw/Lamello, Decore-ative Specialties, Drawer Box Specialties, Edgebanding Services Inc (ESI), Grex Tools, Häfele America Co., Kemp Hardware, Royal Plywood, and Society of Wood Manufacturing (SWM), a chapter of AWFS. For the first time in recent history, female students won the Gold Medal for both the Introductory Woodworking and Cabinetmaking contests, and a school from central California took home five of the six medals.

Introductory Woodworking Contest Supports First-Year Students
Twenty-one students from nine schools throughout California competed in the Introductory Woodworking contest. This contest is intended to introduce students to the SkillsUSA competitive environment and encourage them to return to compete in the Cabinetmaking contest the following year. Contestants are given a set of plans to construct a folding shelf. They had access to chop saws, drill presses, a band saw, jig saws, power drills, and hand tools to create the component parts and assemble the shelf in a six-hour time span.

Cabinetmaking Contest Prepares Students for Industry
The 2022 SkillsUSA California State Cabinetmaking competition hosted 22 students from 11 different high schools across the state. Students competed for medals and the opportunity to represent California at the upcoming SkillsUSA National Championships, which will take place in Atlanta June.

The students built a functioning cabinet that tested their skills using various woodworking machines. Students had access to the table saw, router table, edgebander, sliding panel saw, miter saw, and hand tools. Karl Frey from Colonial Saw introduced the students to the Zeta joinery system with a contest loan of a Zeta machine and a donation of Tenso connectors for all of the Cabinetmaking students. Local Blum representative Lee Schuette assisted the students in attaching their hinges using a Blum Minipress P and helped contestants install Blum Tandem drawer slides. Decore-ative Specialties donated the beautiful solid oak doors and drawer fronts for the contest, saving the students’ time and enhancing the project.

Cabinetmaking contestants had about three hours to review the plans and just six and a half hours to finish the project. Contest judges used criteria such as accuracy of measurements, safety, and use of tools and machinery to determine the scores. Not all students completed the project, but all contestants took home their cabinets after the event so that they could complete them if necessary.

Contests Made Possible Through Volunteers and Industry Donations
Materials for both contests were generously donated by Royal Plywood of Cerritos, CA. In addition to the Tandem slides and drawer hinges, Blum provided the students with tape measures and pencils. Drawer Box Specialties (DBS) provided pre-made dovetail drawer boxes that the students assembled during the contest. Häfele America donated the Hinges for the Introductory Woodworking contest and locking casters for the Cabinetmaking contest.  ESI donated the edge-banding and the knobs for the drawer and door were provided by Kemp Hardware. Prize packages for the top medalists were provided by members of the Society of Wood Manufacturing.

AWFS® and SWM are grateful to the team of volunteers who contributed their time to plan, organize, and execute the contests:

— Saúl Martín, Architectural Woodworking Company – Cabinetmaking Contest Coordinator
— Imelda Torres – Cabinetmaking Contest Support and Photography
— Karl Frey, Colonial Saw – Cabinetmaking Judge
— Diana Ramirez, Reborn Cabinets – Cabinetmaking Judge
— Kenneth Thomas, Inland Woodworkers – Cabinetmaking Judge
— Jorge Garcia, Ontario High School – Cabinetmaking Support
— Oton Gonzalez, Escondido High School – Cabinetmaking Support
— Charlie Rizzo, Ethan Allen – Cabinetmaking Support
— Lee Schuette, Blum Inc. – Cabinetmaking Support
— Mike Trejo, Inland Woodworkers – Cabinetmaking Support
— George (Randy) Zubieta, Oceanside High School – Cabinetmaking Support

— Adam Kessler, AWFS/SWM – Introductory Woodworking Contest Coordinator
— Devyn Bervid, Tecture San Diego – Introductory Woodworking Judge
— Nathaniel Hall, Made Lumber San Diego – Introductory Woodworking Judge

The project plans were developed by SWM and drafted by AWFS Education Manager Adam Kessler, along with support from Saúl Martín of Architectural Woodworking Company.

Congratulations to the SkillsUSA California State Student Medalists!
Kyleen Mitchell of Monache High School (Porterville) received the highest score and the Gold medal in the state high school Cabinetmaking competition and has been invited to represent California at the SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Championships (NLSC) in Atlanta, Georgia, June 20-24, 2022, where she will compete against other top scoring high school competitors from other states. The Society of Wood Manufacturing raised the funds to cover Kyleen’s NLSC registration costs. Rounding out the Cabinetmaking medalist are two more students from Monache High School: Daniel Lopez earned Silver and Sebastian Corona earned Bronze. In the Introductory Woodworking contest, Maria Gamez of Monache High School won Gold, Jiarui Liu of San Gabriel High School (Alhambra) received Silver, and Marriner Christenson, also of Monache High School received Bronze.

SkillsUSA California Virtual Regional Contests Held Earlier This Year
In January and February, SWM volunteer members supported the SkillsUSA California Regional woodworking contests. Over fifty high school students competed in the regional Cabinetmaking and the Introductory Woodworking contests combined. The regional contests serve as a qualifier to determine which contestants will advance to the State Conference. Students had to build a project in their school shop and submit a video about the process. After the judges reviewed the contestants’ videos, the judges also interviewed each contestant via Zoom.

If you would like to learn more about SkillsUSA woodworking or participate in future SkillsUSA California woodworking events, please contact Adam Kessler at adam@awfs.org or (323) 215-0312 for more information.

To see information on the SkillsUSA California Woodworking competitions from AWFS  including photos, sponsor and volunteer information, contest plans, and results, click here.

About SkillsUSA: SkillsUSA is one of the largest national career & technical student organizations in the nation. It promotes job readiness with skills and leadership training and supports students entering skilled trades. Learn more at skillsusa.org

About SWM: The Society of Wood manufacturing (SWM) is a Southern California chapter of AWFS that supports local schools and students through SkillsUSA contests, donations, networking events, and much more. Learn more at awfs.org/education/swm

About AWFS
The Association of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers (AWFS), founded in 1911, is a non-profit organization that wholly owns and produces the biennial AWFS®Fair. The largest trade association serving the entire home and commercial furnishings industry, AWFS has more than 400 members, including manufacturers and distributors of machinery, hardware, software, tooling, lumber, components, plastics, wood products and supplies for the woodworking industry including cabinet, furniture, millwork and custom woodworking products. To learn more, visit awfs.org.