When Grand Forks Secondary School (GFSS) student Maxwell Nicholson entered the Discover Trades BC contest, he never thought that he would come this far.
But with the helpful votes from friends, family, and local supporters Nicholson and his videographer Nate Klassen won.
Nicholson explained that he found out about winning the contest from his brother. “Gerald told me when I got home and I didn’t really believe him,” Nicholson said. After he found out, he called friend Klassen, who had nearly the same reaction – upon finding out, both said they were extremely excited.
The boys explained that making the video was the easy part. Ann Thompson graciously let them film in the cooking classroom at GFSS and filming took about an hour. However they did run into some trouble when trying to upload the video to the Discover Trades BC website. The boys spent close to five hours uploading and it would not work. Nicholson finally emailed the president, who helped them.
Voting was opened to the public on the BC Trades website for the uploaded videos. The 10 with the most votes were then examined by a panel of four judges. The grand prize awarded to the boys was a MacBook Pro laptop. However, instead of one getting the prize of the laptop, they sold it and Nicholson and Klassen split the money.
The other half of the prize was $2,000 for Grand Forks Secondary School. This money will go towards trade programs at the high school and some of it will be used to sponsor students interested in trades to compete at a Skills Canada competition next year.
As for future plans, after graduating 17-year-old Nicholson is interested in doing a four-year business degree and then after, getting some culinary training with the aim of his opening his own business.
Klassen, though not inclined to bake himself, would like to pursue a degree in film. The 14-year-old hopes to move from his small YouTube channel to one day film commercials and movies.
Currently Nicholson operates his small baking business Alaythia Cakes and to try his wares, go to the Farmers’ Market at Gyro Park on Tuesdays and Fridays.
He would like to thank everyone for their support locally and provincially, and is ecstatic that his trade is being recognized.
– Alesha Starchuk for the Grand Forks Gazette