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French chef dreams of welding art Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Helene Altavilla works on an ornamental garden gate at Rogue Community College Thursday. The French cook switched to welding as a career and creative outlet with the help of a one-year course at RCC. She will display her work at RCC�s Southern Oregon Women in Trades Fair Saturday. By JOHN DARLING GRANTS PASS � It was time for single mom Helene Altavilla to get out of restaurant work and do something she loved. She was pushing 40 and her daughter, Jennifer, had just become a teenager. Altavilla wanted to be home evenings with her. So she decided to become a welder. But you won�t find the French-born Altavilla welding mufflers and rebar. Her dream is to weld ornamental garden gates. As a student of Rogue Community College�s one-year welding course, she�s working on her first project � her own garden gate, 11 feet wide, featuring big sunflowers, delicate irises and whimsical creatures. Trades fair What: Southern Oregon Women in Trades Fair. When: 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Where: RCC Crater Lake Center, 5759 Crater Lake Highway, Medford. How much: Free. Highlights: Hands-on plumbing, welding and carpentry activities, workshops and exhibits. Eagle Point High School�s catering program will prepare a free barbecue lunch. For more information: Call Jeanne Schraub at 245-7994. The gate illustrates the French version of the old tortoise-and-hare fable, with French metal lettering saying, "No need to run; you must leave at the right time." Altavilla will display her welded gate from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Southern Oregon Women in Trades Fair, RCC Crater Lake Center, 5759 Crater Lake Highway. The fair offers women and girls the chance to learn about high-paying careers in welding and other trades. "Soon I want to make a living welding fences, gates and balconies," Altavilla says. "I want to create art that�s beautiful, but at the same time it has to do something useful in one�s life. It can�t just sit there." When not welding gates, Altavilla hones her basic skills by welding railings on the RCC campus. She studied architecture at her technical high school in Marseilles, France, as one of six women in a class of 400, then worked in drafting. The two skills now help her in designing projects. At 39, Altavilla thought she was too old to start a new career. But one evening, she saw a 70-year-old woman doing welding as art on the public television show, "Modern Masters." "I jumped up and said, if she can do it, I can do it," Altavilla says. RCC�s Grants Pass campus offers a one-year, state-accredited welding certificate that is equivalent to a one-year apprenticeship and a two-year associate�s degree in applied sciences, said welding teacher Jim Gray. RCC in Jackson County began beginning welding classes this school year. Four of RCC�s 21 welding students are women, he said, and nothing prevents them from performing and earning at the same level as men � in the range of $20,000 to $100,000 a year, depending on ability and willingness to go where the big jobs are. Meanwhile, Altavilla teaches French at a small private school, runs a catering business called LM and occasionally fills in for her mother as chef at LeGrand Restaurant in Grants Pass. Financial aid allows her to go to school full time. The welding course requires classes in math and geometry to build skills in the design and layout of projects. "It�s hard work," said Altavilla, "but my daughter drags me to the table in the evening and we do our homework together." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.