SPARK brings pro-grade fun to Kent

KENT — On Saturday, Oct. 12, power tool whine and the clang of hammer-on-nail filled the air on the grounds of the Connecticut Antique Machinery Association (CAMA).

This was not the noise of any regular weekend renovation, though, but the clamor of hundreds of children trying their hands at carpentry, pipefitting, arboriculture, and many other trade industries.

It was the third annual SPARK festival, held by Kent-based nonprofit TradesUp, and children were hewing, cutting, drilling, and sawing as far as the eye could see. TradesUp founder Mason Lord said he created the event to expose kids to the trades when woodshops and other crafts programs are increasingly rare in school curriculums. “There needs to be a way for kids to experience this kind of thing,” he said.

Stalls were arranged around an idyllic stretch of land surrounding the Eric Sloane Museum and CAMA’s grounds. Demonstrations from visiting tradespeople spanned the industries of upholstery, timber framing, masonry, landscaping, blacksmithing, tiling, precision manufacturing, plumbing, arboriculture and beyond.

“I heard they’d have something for carpentry,” said Ella Murphy (11) of Trumbull. She’s preparing for a carpentry project for an upcoming school show, and was hoping to get a head start learning the craft. Her grandfather, Vinny Cleary, was there for the machine history — “I’m hoping to see some Baird machines here,” he said, referring to longtime Connecticut machinery company US Baird.

It was Darrin Yardley’s second visit to a SPARK event, coming from Bristol to show his kids “the old school way of doing stuff.” His son was hard at work pounding nails into a stump — “he likes hammering nails,” Yardley said — while his daughter enjoyed the blacksmith demonstration where they worked on horseshoes.

Many of these crafts are “intangible heritage,” Nevan Carling of Hartford said, which is why it is important to carry these traditions on and showcase them to the public. Unlike a historic building, which is tangible heritage, crafts and trades are passed down orally.

He was demonstrating hewing, which is the whittling down of tree trunks with axes into beams for timber framing — how almost all early American buildings were constructed he said. At 23, he’s young in the industry, but no longer the youngest on a site. The younger generation is starting to get into it, he said, “especially since Covid.”

Suniya Goodwin flies high on the tree-climbing ropes trial.Alec Linden

While many of the demonstrations focused on antique crafts, such as having kids split wood with a mallet and froe, just any many focused on more modern trades, switching the hammers and axes for leaf blowers and power drills.

“We want to get them interested in using their hands,” said Shane Grant of Eastern Water Solutions: “It’s important to bring the younger generation into the trades because the trades are falling apart.”

Dean Ackerman of Warren, who designed a puzzle with pipe fittings that was very popular with the children at the event, agreed that “we don’t have kids getting into the trades.” He hopes that that trend changes: “There’s stuff they can learn from the trades that makes them self-sufficient,” he said.

If the response from the kids is any indication, SPARK has succeeded at least in showing that working with your hands can be fun. All of the demonstrations saw steady attendance, but the most popular of the day was a high-flying arboriculture exhibit from local arborist Daniel Greenbaum who runs CT Greentree out of Kent. Greenbaum and volunteers harnessed the kids into several safety lines and winched them up into the canopy, let them climb a tall maple, and had them swing from a low limb over the cheering crowd.

Suniya Goodwin, whose father Nathan ran a woodworking stall at the event, was delighted after her time amongst the foliage. Her mother Joanna said that after clambering about the trees last year, Suniya said she thought could do it as a job. And what about this year — does she feel the same? Having just descended from the tree tops, she gave a resounding yes.

“We’re always the last ones to leave,” Greenbaum said as a line of children still waited eagerly well after the event’s official closing time of 4 p.m. He runs this demonstration every year at SPARK, and for him, it’s all about the kids – “it’s when you see that light” that makes it, he said.