Like many, I spent a large portion of the summer of 2020 trying to master the art of making sourdough bread.
I failed.
While friends and family flourished at developing new skills during the pandemic, I tended to get frustrated, returning to old skills (sleeping, reading comic books, gardening) and never expanding my horizons like I would’ve liked.
The problem? I didn’t have a proper teacher.
So when I headed to the first-ever Lakeridge High School Skill Fair April 3, I was set on finding proper guidance to develop some new skills.
Organized by Lakeridge senior Sevens Baertsch Kovalchick, the Skill Fair provided an in-person opportunity for students and community members to learn new useful skills from volunteers.
During the pandemic, Baertsch Kovalchick learned about networks of mutual aid and wanted to create an event at Lakeridge where community members could help each other by sharing their knowledge for free.
When I arrived my eye was immediately drawn to the blue safety mats along one end of the cafeteria. Students in blue and white robes were flying through the air, punching pads and practicing disarming an assailant.
As I made my way around the tables, I knew some of the skills I wanted to learn before I left: how to make noodles, how to fix a flat tire on a bike, how to defend myself — and how to dance.
I realized quickly that the Skill Fair would lead the way.
Enikő Bányász invited me over to the One River School table to learn about zine making. In high school I experimented with DIY-publishing so I sat down and titled my zine: “How to Do News.”
I only made it two pages into my zine — Step 1: eat beforehand, Step 2: make sure camera and phone are charged — before I headed to watch a demonstration from Steve Glazer, a parent volunteer from the National Interscholastic Cycling Association.
Glazer wasn’t the only one explaining how to fix a flat tire during the Skill Fair; out in the parking lot, another volunteer showed students how to do the same on a car, as well as how to change motor oil.
Glazer was in the middle of applying an ample amount of patch glue when I approached. He said it was important to use a lot of glue and make sure all of the edges of the patch were secure so that no air could escape.
After getting the patch secured and adding a small amount of air to the tire, Glazer demonstrated the proper method for putting the tire back on the wheel over the repaired tube.
By moving both hands away from each other and properly “manhandling” the tire back onto the wheel, Glazer made the process look easy, although when I tried it proved not to be.
After thanking Glazer, I stopped by the student carefully cutting pasta dough into long noodles and watched from afar as Jim Carlisle, another volunteer, took apart a toaster in front of an astonished high schooler.
Time was running out and I’d only learned one skill properly.
The staff of River City Warriors, a martial arts studio in Tigard, were beginning to pack up the blue wrestling mats used to demonstrate self-defense. City Hall staff were cleaning up ceramics materials and other activities they’d brought to the fair.
I knew my last skill needed to count, so I approached Tim Case from Washington County Emergency Medical Services. Surrounded by rubber limbs with wounds to practice on, I learned how to apply a tourniquet.
Case said that he’d come to the Skill Fair to help high school students understand the life-saving difference it can make to understand how to care for a wound.
Case teaches wound treatment clinics for “Stop the Bleed,” a national campaign to educate high schoolers about how to stop bleeding from gunshot wounds, accidental cuts and lacerations.
If more students knew how to apply pressure, administer tourniquets and make one in an emergency, more lives could be saved during natural disasters or active-shooter incidents at schools.
Case demonstrated the intense amount of pressure needed to stop a wound from bleeding directly and how to apply a tourniquet properly. After wrapping the limb as tightly as possible, one must twist the “windlass” — the piece of hard plastic or wood wound into the tourniquet — until the blood flow is cut off. Case said to use something solid like a pen if you’re making a tourniquet out of fabric in an emergency. He recommended high schoolers look at stopthebleed.org to learn more about first-aid skills.
After all the stations were packed up, the first Lakeridge Skill Fair ended. Even though I hadn’t made it to the “How to Dance” booth, it was a reason to come back next year and I was happy with the useful skills I had learned.
Besides, I don’t think I was brave enough to try and dance in front of even the best teacher.
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