CCC Welding Club Forges New Partnership with Food Pantry

Clackamas Community College’s American Welding Society club recently forged a relationship with one of Oregon’s largest food pantries.

CCC welding student Jessica Jones works for SnowCap Community Charities in Gresham along with attending classes at Clackamas Community College. SnowCap provides food, clothing and other resources and services to the community. They serve about 10,000 people a month, according to Jeremy Wilebski, SnowCap operations manager.

Though they serve a large population, Jones noticed SnowCap’s facility lacked good signage. Jones proposed the project to the Welding Club earlier this year, and they agreed to take on creating a new sign for them.

The sign was truly a group effort. Welding Lab Technician Aschlie Town replicated SnowCap’s logo and transferred it to the Mastercam software to plasma cut the logo on a large sheet of metal. CCC welding alumnus Anna Lever showed the club how to do the patina on the sign. Finally, students from the college’s auto collision repair shop applied the clear coat to the sign.

“It was awesome! It turned out so good,” Welding Club advisor Marlana Tizo said. “It’s a good charity to work for.”

The sign was completed before CCC closed its buildings and went online due to COVID-19, but the club had to wait to give the sign to SnowCap. On July 8, a few members of the club delivered the sign to SnowCap. Wright Manufacturing, who Jones is currently earning her cooperative work experience with, volunteered to transport the sign to the building.

Though everyone was wearing masks, the pride of donating the sign to SnowCap was apparent all around.

“This is way beyond what I was expecting in my mind,” Wilebski said.

Jones is working on her welding technology degree at CCC as well as the career technical education program. Her goal is to become a welding instructor.

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