Plains Skills USA student gives back

Last week a student from Plains High School decided to give back to first responders and invited three representatives to come out to the school shop class. Madison Elliott, who has lived in Plains for the last four years, recently got voted in as a state officer for SkillsUSA. As an officer, she traveled to Helena where she, and six other state officers prepared gift baskets to give to local first responders in their hometowns. They prepared 18 gift baskets and each officer took three home with them to distribute.

Elliott contacted Ethan Harvey with the Sanders County Sheriff's Office, Zach Vanderwall with the Plains Ambulance and James Russell with Plains Rural Fire to meet with her and tell them about SkillsUSA and how it has afforded her the opportunity to give back. Elliott thanked the men for their service to the community and said that she picked these persons because she knows them personally as good people and understands that their careers require them to do a lot of good work for Sanders County, and especially the town of Plains where she lives.

The high school junior is a welding student in one of Kyle Mitchell's shop classes. Elliott started in woodworking and found that she loved welding. "I had a passion for welding and doing something with my hands," said Elliott. According to her father, Eric Elliott, "She has always been a hands-on kind of girl. She has always had leadership ability and is a very hard worker."

Madison joined the SkillsUSA program to further her education and to practice welding. The organization is active across the U.S.s and strives to improve leadership skills and especially participation in trade careers. They hold annual competitions where students from across the state compete in trade-related performance, design, and presentation-oriented contests. Students that do well can compete nationwide. Those, like Madison, who strive to go further in SkillsUSA can opt to try for officer's positions of president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, reporter and parliamentarian. These positions offer students networking opportunities, a huge boost to their resume, scholarships and more. Madison was elected through remote election, based on her submitted resume, application and a video speech. Ordinarily ,officers are elected through an in-person process, however, with COVID-19, changes had to be made. Each candidate is voted on by two student delegates from each chapter in the state. Madison was elected into the secretary position.

SkillsUSA provides career training, early job entry, scholarships and more to participants. Madison wants to compete in the SkillsUSA competitions this year and says that her favorite types of welding are arc and wire feed. She even helped out at a local fabrication shop, RTI Bridge, to learn more about the field in addition to her daily welding practice and education in the shop class.