Sparks are flying Thursday nights in the agriculture shop room at Brownstown Central High School.

Eighteen adults — 14 men and four women — are receiving an introduction to welding and an opportunity to try a different type each week in a two-hour class.

The sparks not only are coming from the welding tool making contact with a piece of metal.

The class also is sparking interest in the adults to do welding on their own and maybe integrate what they learn into a career.

“It was kind of nerve-racking at first,” Andrew Fenton of Seymour said of the first class Oct. 6. “But once you get the first couple ones, I got more comfortable with it. Then you just go to town and burn it up.”

Fenton said offering a welding class to adults in the community was a good idea.

“You never know when you might need it,” he said. “Whether you use it a whole bunch or not, it’s always good to know. There could be job opportunities that come from it; you never know. If nothing else, people learn a valuable skill.”

In June, Blake Hackman, the agriculture teacher and FFA adviser at Brownstown Central High School, received approval from the school board to offer the introductory welding class for adults.

Once he opened up registration at the beginning of the new school year in August, about 20 people expressed interest in it.

Read the full story in Wednesday’s Tribune and online at tribtown.com.