The previous two Skills Work!® On The Road posts were contributed by our two most experienced Liaison Officers, Devon Turcotte from Woodbridge and William Howe from Peterborough. They told you about some of the more unusual experiences they have come across in their 9 combined years “on the road.” Since I have been on the road for less than a year, I haven’t experienced anything quite as extraordinary with school presentations. So instead, I’m going to tell you about some of the extraordinary things I came across recently while actually “on the road.”
My geographic region is the Near North, which is why I’m based out of Sudbury. A couple of months ago I went on my first multi-day, long-distance road trip to visit schools in the communities farthest away from my home. I planned out my trip to cover as much ground as possible in a week – I drove 1985 km in 5 days, and spent just over 22.5 hours in the car. That’s almost 400 km and 4.5 hours of driving each day!
Considering my region is the largest geographic area for a Liaison Officer, I must make several week-long trips during the school year. This trip included presentations at some very small schools in small towns (I presented to a class of 8 students in grades 5, 6, 7 and 8!), which made the trip very memorable, but one thing I didn’t expect on the trip was the amount of roadside attractions I encountered.
I had heard of the famous giant goose in Wawa (which I learned is not the only giant goose in town – my hotel had a giant goose on its roof and I saw a couple others around town), but little did I know that I was going to drive by some lesser known giants on my trip.
I saw a giant snowman in Beardmore, a pack of giant wolves attacking two giant moose in Hearst, a giant nativity scene in Kapuskasing and a full-sized replica of a giant dinosaur, the Tyrannosaurus Rex, on the highway near Mattice!
Next time you see a roadside attraction like these, remember that they were also designed, built and installed by people in skilled trade and technology careers! And I just love that I get to travel to new places while making sure that even the small towns in remote locations around our beautiful province get to hear our message about the myriad of opportunities that are out there in the skilled trades and technology! So follow your passion and do what you love, so you’ll always love what you do!
Mauricio Ospina
Bilingual Liaison Officer
Click here to see where Mauricio and the rest of the Liaison Team have travelled so far this school year!
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