Envision being lifted 65 feet in the air in a telehandler and looking down to see a multitude of machinery, students, and fun activities going on.
Hard Hats, Hammers, and Hotdogs (H4) is a massive event on the Kootenai Technical Education Campus (KTEC) and North Idaho College (NIC) Parker Technical Educational Center/ Career and Technical Education Facility.
“It was an amazing experience. We got information about trades and other companies,” said Deegan Joseph-Gierke, a sophomore at LHS.
H4 is a combination of a job fair, an opportunity to partake in exhilarating activities, and a tour of KTEC and North Idaho College campus.
“I was not expecting to be able to go into the NIC classes and do hands-on activities. That was very different from last year,” Carter Kinley, a sophomore at LHS, said.
This was Kinley’s second time going to H4, and there was a lot of difference this year compared to last year.
“There were a lot less people,” Kinley said. “That gave us more time to talk to the vendors and companies.”
With only LHS and Mountain View Alternative School taking part in the event at the same time, there were way fewer people. Thus, there were shorter lines for using equipment and more time to gain knowledge of a trade, piece of machinery or the Military.
“I was very happy that we were with Mountain View Alternative School because I got to see some people I haven’t seen in a very long time,” Joseph-Girke said.
An extensive number of companies were at H4. With big names such as Thorns INC. Electrical Construction, CDA Paving and Concrete and Idaho Forest Group. All these big companies attending this event show how important it is. In addition, these companies spent an overwhelming amount of money to make H4 truly a fantastic experience.
These companies were looking to inspire and hire. With a company spending over $100,000 to bring a logging simulator for students to use and get inspired by, this was no regular job fair.
Other organizations are spending millions of dollars to get machinery to KTEC for students to use as well as being able to experience the feeling of operating them, and the companies have to pay for diesel on top of that, these companies were not here to play around.
“The logging simulator was my second favorite part. It was very confusing at first because of how complicated it was…,” Joseph-Gierke said. “However, after a while, you get used to it. It gets pretty fun after a while and is very interesting to play.”
Other activities were also happening outside, such as students operating machinery, building things and sitting inside vehicles that were provided.
“I was able to operate a Skidder, an Auger, a logging excavator, a skid steer and a road grader,” Kinley said. “I’ve never operated a logging excavator before, and it was very fun, and I made some great logs to split with it.”
Thorco INC. Electrical Construction and GINNO Construction Co. considerably impacted the event. They gave a speech at the start of the event to help students and faculty fully understand how important the event was. They also showed the importance of how much companies indeed spent and all the time and effort they put in.
Kinley took advantage of all the time that he was able to meet. He talked to a vast amount of companies. Most of the people had an everyday speech that did not stand out, but one speech stuck out.
“An HVAC company, they were varying,” Kinley said. “The way that they had their sales pitch stuck out to me. They had very detailed explanations. They gave a very good job description. They gave me a good point of view of what they would do on the job. They had been very interested in their job, but I was not 18, so I couldn’t ask them for a job.”
There were hotdogs, chips, cookies, an apple and water for lunch. After a long day of walking, being outside was rewarding.
Thus, the name was complete. Hats were needed outside, and hammers were inside to pound nails into a board, and hot dogs for lunch.