Women represent slightly more than one-quarter of all the people who have participated in Stone Trust workshops since 2014, so clearly co-educational instruction works well. But especially in the trades, traditionally male-dominated fields, many women enjoy the comfort of learning from women in a female environment. So we offer women’s workshops! Our 2021 schedule includes April, July, and October sessions. Notice our first-ever 2-Day Women’s Intro!
1.11 Women’s Introductory Workshop (1-Day): April 9, 2021 (Dummerston, VT)
1.11 Women’s Introductory Workshop (1-Day): April 10, 2021 (Dummerston, VT)
1.11 Women’s Introductory Workshop (1-Day): July 10, 2021 (Dummerston, VT)
1.11 Women’s Introductory Workshop: (1-Day): October 9, 2021 (South Fork, PA)
1.11 Women’s Introductory Workshop: (1-Day): October 10, 2021 (South Fork, PA)
1.21 Women’s Introductory Workshop (2-Day): October 22 & 23, 2021 (Mont Vernon, NH)
The Stone Trust (TST) offered our first Women’s Introduction to Dry Stone Walling workshops in 2015, taught by the first women in North America to achieve Dry Stone Walling Association Level 2 Professional Certification—Kim Coggin, Hilary Dees, Jo Hodgson, and Judy Rand. Every year since, this small group of women–the only women in North America qualified to teach Stone Trust workshops– has blended stone work expertise and teaching experience to share the five basic principles of building a structurally sound, aesthetically pleasing dry stone wall. At the time, they represented the only women in North America certified by the DSWA at the professional level.
Since then, a fifth North American woman has joined the ranks of Level 2 Professional wallers. Professional member Victoria Merriman leaped the Level 2 hurdle at a fall certification test last September. Despite the pandemic, in October 2020 fifteen more women came to learn from Kim and Judy. Victoria joined in as a volunteer instructor. She intends to join our pool of certified instructors when we offer instructor training in early winter of 2022.
Kim and Judy are teaching our 2021 women’s workshops. Victoria is again volunteering her expertise. Unfortunately, Jo anticipates that continued travel restrictions between Canada and the U.S. will prevent her from instructing this year. We’ll hope to benefit from her teaching presence again in 2022. We also hope you will come to learn with us!