RAPID CITY, SD — This Friday and Saturday, 40 children (aged 12-15) will find themselves in Black Hills Tire for a two-day experience that will give them a firsthand look and hands-on experience with automotive repair.
Camp drive is an event which cofounder Tenise Chapman said came to her four years ago while considering concerns about automotive technician shortages. “There’s science camps, music camps, all sorts of sports camps, what if there was a camp where these kids could come in and see, hands on, what it’s like to work in the automotive industry?” she said in a statement recounting the event. Participants will get to train their skills in eight hands-on activities, teaching the basics of maintenance, oil changes, welding, brakes, alignment, and more, assisted by professionals in the field and innovative virtual reality training modules.
Tenise says “The point behind Camp Drive is to introduce them to the automotive industry, and maybe they’ll come in and think ‘I don’t like this, this isn’t for me,’ or maybe they’ll come in and think ‘wow, this is really cool, I want to keep doing this’,” however, making the experience fun to those potentially interested in the field is top priority for the founder. “it’s a really great way to make a living, and it’s not that sort of dirty-greasy mentality anymore”.
The final lap of Camp Drive comes on Saturday, when family members are invited to watch what Tenise calls a “Nascar-style” Pit Crew Challenge, in which teams of participants will collaborate, using everything from their hands-on experience to quickly maintain a vehicle.
For those whose interest is sparked by the Camp, “Really, with the way the automotive industry is going, you really can’t get into the field without going to some sort of automotive technology school. Western Dakota Tech, Lake Area Tech and Southeast tech have two-year automotive programs that are fantastic,” Says Tenise, who highly recommends the Build Dakota Scholarship program as a way to get into the field without the massive debt increasingly associated with higher education, saying “This can be a huge step up,” for anyone looking to make a living from their passion for automotives, or any of a number of high-demand professions.
