Gar/Pal AAUW hosts six area Tech Trek girls

Two Farmington girls and their mothers were honored guests at the October meeting of the American Association of University Women Palouse-Garfield Branch. Olivia Booth and Abigael Lobdell were among six local area girls sent by the Palouse-Garfield AAUW to this summer’s Tech Trek camp at Eastern Washington University.

The meeting was in Garfield at the home of Yvonne Berliner, the branch vice president.

Tech Trek camps are sponsored by AAUW and designed to give girls between seventh and eighth grades a hands-on experience of STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Local AAUW branches select girls through applications and interviews, and raise money to send them to the camp.

Besides Booth and Lobdell, who attend Oakesdale School, the Palouse-Garfield branch funded Maci Brantner and Samantha Snekvik of Palouse, Delani Lehn of Tekoa, and Madison Belland of Oakesdale. In addition, Emily Kramer of Tekoa was funded by the Washington State AAUW.

At $900 tuition for each girl, the branch raised a total of $5,400 by selling boxes of Palouse commodities and soliciting contributions from businesses and individuals. This year’s donors included local businesses Country Styles (Garfield), Kirkpatrick, Utgaard and Perry (Colfax) and various individuals.

At the Oct.10 meeting, Olivia and Abigael, with their mothers Cheryl Booth and Shelly Lobdell, described Tech Trek camp as entertaining and educational, sometimes even thrilling.

Shelly reported that her daughter Abby had called her once to say, “This is the best day of my life! I held a human heart in my hand!”

Guests also at the meeting were Washington State University engineering students Allisa Horst and Kiera Rust, president of the Society of Women Engineers at WSU. Kiera and Allisa described their paths to engineering and WSU.