Local 1 was the host Local for the 2009 Western States Apprenticeship Contest.  The contest was held at the Red Lion on the River, at Jantzen Beach.  The last time Local 1 hosted this event was in 2001.  There were 45 apprentices from all over the West, competing in Brick, Tile and Marble.  The top three placements in each craft won cash, prizes and bragging rights for the next year.  This year’s contest was also a qualifier to move on to the International Union’s Apprenticeship Contest to be held in September at the National Training Center in Bowie Maryland.  The top four contestants in brick, the top six in tile, and the top five in marble will advance to the National contest.

 

Local 1 Oregon was the defending champions in Brick and Tile, winning first places in both, last year.  This year was another story.  The first place winner in Brick was, Alfredo DeLaCruz of Local 7 Colorado.  First place in Tile went to Pavel Ugarcovici, of Local 18 California.  First place in Marble went to Nikolajs Pastuhovs of Local 1 Washington.  Congratulations to the winners and all of the apprentice contestants for a hard fought contest.

 

Our Local 1 contestants were Matt Milne and Scott Lummus in the Brick competition, and Matteo Russo and Phillip Russo in the Tile competition.  Although they did not qualify to move on the National contest, they did a fine job of representing Local 1, and I’m proud of the professional way they handled the contest.

 

From all of the responses and comments we received the contest and awards banquet were a resounding success.  That success was the result of a lot of hard work and planning.  A lot of the credit needs to go to the people that worked so hard to make this event a success.  Matt Eleazer worked countless hours, from selling ad space, to working out project specs and details.  Our new Apprenticeship Coordinator Shawn Lenczowski did a great job, rising to the challenge in a very short period of time.  Cindy Griffith, our Apprenticeship secretary, did a great job keeping track of all of the information regarding the contestants and the advertisers in our contest program.  TJ Tucker, our Local 1 secretary, was instrumental in sorting out the technical challenges in creating ads for advertisers, creating and printing out labels and so much more.  Cindy and TJ even helped sell hats and t-shirts at the contest event.  There are so many things everyone did, I can’t list them. I couldn’t be more proud of all of these people.  They never faltered, when they were asked to do a little more to make this event a success.

 

There is another team that was also instrumental in the hands on portion of our contest.  I need to thank the Hod Carriers, and Finishers that helped make this happen.  Our Hoddies were Greg Kalian, Dan Hill, Jay Jones, Lance Bergren, Bill Nelson and Josh Tressler.  Our Finishers were Caz Helmstetter, Russell Klum, Jeremy Hanson, Kristy Dreyer, David Torres, Paul Woodward and Alan Dobbie.  A big thank you to all of them! We also need to give a special thanks to Matteo Russo Sr. and Bart Jensen.  Matteo and Bart helped us out with the Tile and Marble tending, when we had a last minute personnel shortage.  We had many rank and file volunteers that helped with our setup too. Mike Brown, Bill Bloomquist, Matt Hall, Greg Rein, Mark Roddy, Boyd Leighton, Dick Hammond, Steve Chambers, Mark Bader, Dennis Price, Bart Jenson, and Matteo Russo Sr. all helped us.  I know I probably missed someone, and you have my apology.

  

We also need to thank John and Erik Carlson and Roedel Tile for their help with lending us usage of their truck and hauling a lot of the material we needed.  Ric Thompson and Bratton Masonry also stepped up big in providing their tractor-trailer and driver, Eddie Dye, to haul the brick, block, mortar and numerous other things to the contest site.

 

Two of our members of Local 1 also volunteered to be contest Judges.  John Mayer, helped us with the Tile judging and Ken Weihl helped us with the Brick judging.  As they now know, the job of judging these projects is a lot harder than you think. I thank both of them for their hard work and help.

 

You can see by the list of people to thank, the size and scope of an event like this.  It’s great to have the relationship that we have with our members, contractors, suppliers and professionals who are willing to step up and give Local 1 a helping hand when we asked.  Support like this only comes from working together, and I want everyone to know how much I appreciate that cooperation.  Thanks to all of you.