Proctor students proud of Backwoods Barbie car they built in welding class

It’s been a successful semester for students in Mr. Blom’s welding class in Proctor.

They competed in the Supermileage Challenge in Brainerd earlier this month.

One of the teams built a Backwoods Barbie car, which is pink! And she garnered some attention at the speedway.

“We got a lot of looks for our car and for our shirts. She didn’t look like any other cars there,” said Erika Cole, a sophomore.

Friday morning, junior Jamie Ehresman took her out for a spin for us.

“It’s definitely different than an actual car. We have a throttle that you push in with your hand and the brakes, you just kind of have to rip it back. It’s definitely fun,” Ehresman said.

Each person on the team had a certain role. From administrative work, to design, to building to welding.

Even those who hadn’t done welding before, really got into it. Taylor Peterson, another junior, explained, “These are my best friends and we love working together. And we just wanted to make a pink car to show everyone that girls can do just as much as guys can do.”

And junior Lexi Knudsen added, “At first, we were kind of scared to join because we didn’t know anything or how to do anything. But once we got to do stuff, it was really fun and our teammates were really helpful.”

There are two guys on the team, Liam Monahan and Toby Hansen. Both are sophomores.

The plan is to improve on the first model.

Ellyn McLean, another junior, said, “This is kind of our trial run. We know what works. and we know what doesn’t. And we’re going to come back next year and do much better.”

Blom said he’s proud of the teams. “They realize that not everything worked out that they put together. And they have to figure out how to fix something. And get it back on the track,” he said.

If you’d like to help sponsor the teams who head to the competition, please reach out to Tyler Blom:

tblom@proctor.k12.mn.us