BANGOR, Maine — Sporting white chef hats and supplied with bags of red, green and white frosting, students from Fruit Street Elementary School on Monday learned how professional cooks decorate sweets for the holidays with the help of students at the Penobscot Job Corps Center.
The second-graders wrapped their small hands around the pastry bags and squeezed as hard as they could until dabs of frosting emerged from the tips. Some children decorated cookies shaped like stars, snowflakes and angels.
Others built small gingerbread houses using single-serving milk cartons, similar to the ones many of the children would have with lunch when they returned to Fruit Street, as the framing. Using white frosting, the second-graders attached perfectly sized pieces of gingerbread to the sides and tops. The second-graders used the frosting to outline doors and windows on the gingerbread.
At the second graders’ elbows stood Job Corps students in the Advanced Baking and Pastry program.
More than 80 students from Fruit Street Elementary School visited the center at 1375 Union St. on Monday to learn about technical education opportunities. More than 100 students from Downeast Elementary School were scheduled to visit the center on Tuesday. The two-hour visits include hands-on projects in the welding, culinary arts, carpentry and health care career areas.
Sara York, a second-grade teacher at Fruit Street, helped arrange the visit to Job Corps, which is part of a series of programs to get children thinking about their future careers. She said that the class also has a college day where teachers and staff wear T-shirts and sweatshirts from their alma maters and talk about college life.
“This is a great opportunity for them to realize there are options for job training here in our city,” York said. “They don’t have to go college but advanced training is important so they can be fully employed.”
Aaron Duren, 22, of Exeter wasn’t interested in carpentry as a child.
“I was more into taking things apart, like my mom’s computer and her microwave,” he said.
Now enrolled in the carpentry program at the Job Corps Center, Duren said he liked the idea of working with the students.
“This gives us a chance to share our experience with small people who might get into and remember it,” he said.
Second-grader Olivia Hatch was one of two girls with 10 boys Monday in the carpentry shop. With help, she hammered together the wooden pieces for a birdhouse. She also used sandpaper to smooth the rough sides.
“I wanted to build a birdhouse because I’ve never builded a birdhouse before,” the 7-year-old said when asked why she had wanted to be in the carpentry shop. “I like to build things. I builded a robot at school.”
“This gives youngsters an opportunity to try something they might not otherwise have been able to try,” Martin said over the din of hammers striking nails. “A lot of things that we did as children, like this, come back to us as adults.”