The annual SkillsUSA competition was held in Bangor on March 1 and 2. Students from PIHS, Washburn, Ashland and Caribou competed. Competitions were held at the Cross Insurance Center, United Technologies Center, Eastern Maine Community College and Penobscot Job Corps.

One highlight of this year’s opening ceremonies was having not only the State Director of Skills Hal Casey in attendance, but also the National SkillsUSA Director Timothy W. Lawrence kick off competitions. Lawrence gave a welcoming speech which consisted of SpongeBob analogies that got the entire crowd of students involved starting with, “Are you ready kids?” (cue SpongeBob theme song), and the night continued from there.

Official dress for a SkillsUSA competition consists of black dress pants, black socks or tights, a white polo shirt or white t-shirt, covered by a red Skills USA jacket or red blazer. The males are expected to wear a white collared shirt with a black tie to accompany their red jacket or blazer. Many people lost points during their competitions due to lack of complete official dress as the judges went around and checked outfits, even going as far to ask people to lift their pant legs to prove they were wearing black socks or tights.

Closing ceremonies took longer than opening ceremonies but the event held more excitement because students finally got the results of their competitions. The night began with PIRCTC winning the spirit award, thanks to the cops and robbers uniforms students wore the night before at opening ceremonies, complimented by cardboard jail cells and a stuffed police dog.

In the final results, 30 out of the 36 students competing for PIRCTC placed, whether that meant winning gold, silver or bronze. One team of five students who competed in Quiz Bowl was disqualified because they had brought calculators when they weren’t supposed to, although they didn’t know that. Senior Laura McKenna wasn’t impressed by the disqualification. “I was kind of mad that the lady running the competition actually disqualified us when she didn’t even tell us the rules before we started.” However, a grievance was filed and with some further investigation, a few days later it was announced that the PIRCTC Quiz Bowl team had, in fact, earned a bronze medal and was no longer disqualified.

Senior Ellie Goheen, current SkillsUSA historian, was re-elected to be on the Maine SkillsUSA State Officer team. Junior Wyatt Fullen was also elected to join the State Officer team. Both students had to interview for their positions and were recognized on stage during closing ceremonies. Positions will soon be elected to determine what role each student will play on the State Officer Team.

PIRCTC headed home with happy hearts, medals around their necks and smiles on their faces.