Meite's Gett Day Camp
This web site is about one of the coolest girl summer camps out there. Welcome to Meite's Gett Hip Experience.
Gett camp was developed to promote trades and technology in teenage girls in grades 7 & 8. The camp is supposed to broaden our career horizons and teach us that anyone can build a non-motorized go-cart. Twenty girls are chosen across the province of Manitoba to participate in this absolutely free camp thanks to the sponsors. There are 2 weeklong sessions with ten girls to a session. I was in the second session at the R. B. Russell High School in Winnipeg.
Day 1: At 9:00am I headed into the woodworking lab for the first time. I was a little apprehensive about meeting so many new people but heck I was here to have fun! All we did the first day was get to know each other, did some exercises, chose our partners, see the master plan for the week, and design our go-carts. By the end of the day my partner(Jazmine) and I had come up with what looked like a piece of swiss cheese on wheels with a door. Very cool! We'd had the grand tour and saw all our tools. As a learning experience, we made our very own toolboxes. At 4:00pm it was time to go home. Sniff!
Day 2 & 3: We built our go-carts on Tuesday and Wednesday. First we cut out our bases from plywood with the circle saw and marked some lines with the chalk marker. We made our backs and the handles after that. We used the drill press to make holes for our front and back axles. We learned about pilot holes and how drills can be very useless if all the battery power is gone. ;^) We waxed the underside of the cart to help the front axle slide. On our sides we learned how very important it is to measure twice and cut once. Measuring angles was quite the adventure when it came to making our supports. Inevitability someone would make a wrong measurment, make the wrong cut, and have to start all over again. That is a painful experience!
The tools where a lot of fun to use once you got used to the noise. We used our team drill, the miter saw, the jig saw, the band saw, the drill press, the router, and the circular saw. We also used a regular hand saw just to know how it felt and a hack saw to cut the metal coil that went into our axles. Sanders where also used a great deal to make everything go faster.
Day 4: Thursday was paint day! I designed the whole paint scheme on "the pieces". That was what we had finally decided to call it. The paint scheme was so difficult that Jazmine and I had to stay over time with friends and family helping to finally get it all done. On the top door of the go-cart, we put the name of our speed machine. On one side I had my name and on the other side we had Jazmine's. On the back we had a shooting star.
Day 5: Friday was show day! In the morning we attached all the wheels to the go-cart. Then we test drived our little speed demons. We wrecked our paint jobs by playing chicken and crashing into the fence from not turning fast enough! In the afternoon we had a barbecue and all the family and friends where invited to come. Our first race was an obstacle course. We had to go through a slalom, change a tire, go over speed bumps, go over a tire, change drivers, and make it back again. Phew! It was a tough course. The second race was just about pure speed. We came in second place. After all the excitement we had some food and where interviewed by CKY 5 news. Did you see us? There was a silent auction and then the presentation of awards. My go-cart won the prize for most creative paint design. Then all to soon we had to give our tearful good byes and leave for home.
I'd like thank the Gett program for a great camp. Thank-you very much to all those women that made it happen for us. I got a big boost from the experience.
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