Help USAs Car Painting Olympian Win Gold at World
Donation protected
Hello - my name is Jessica Neri & I am the Co-Chair of the Automotive Refinish Technology SkillsUSA Competition. I am hoping to raise funds for Lily Williams to compete in Car Painting on the World Stage at the 47th WorldSkills Competition, set to take place September 10-15, 2024 in Lyon France.
Every two years since 1950, dozens of countries and regions from all over the globe have sent more than 1,400 competitors to test their skills in over 60 different skilled trades, and in 2024, Team USA is slated to participate in five categories – automobile technology, auto body repair/car painting, cooking, heavy vehicle maintenance and welding – with delegates being chosen from among the SkillsUSA winners.
In April of 2023 Lily Williams won Gold in Automotive Refinish for her home state of Arkansas, which meant she moved onto Nationals. In June of 2023 Lily Williams won Gold at Nationals in Automotive Refinish against all other Gold Place winners from their states. She was than in the running to represent Team USA at World in Car Painting. After a committee of industry partners interviewed 6 potential World Car Painting Competitors - Lily Williams was chosen to represent our industry on the World Stage.
The WorldSkills Car Painting USA team is funded solely through private donations. To fully fund our auto body competitor, we need a minimum of $20,000.
These funds will allow Lily Williams to purchase equipment, materials, attend training, compete at what's known as "international friendly competitions" which allow WorldSkills participants a chance to test how well they work under pressure ahead of the WorldSkills final in September & of course pay for her airfare, room & board to Lyon France.
The USA has never medaled at the world level in refinish, but we can change that by coming together to support Lily Williams & the Car Painting USA World Skills Team – this is the Olympics of our industry, and nothing says ‘America’ like our competitor kicking butt and bringing home the gold, silver or bronze! Lily will give us EVERYTHING SHE HAS to represent our Country & our Trade. She is even putting off attending Lincoln Tech in Nashville so she can live, breathe, eat Car Painting! But before she can do that, we need to rally around her & give her the support she needs.
Lily Williams will prepare for the competition with industry expert Jamie Redd (PPG), who will accompany her to France to lend his support during the biennial event often referred to as the “Olympics of Technical Skills.”
According to WorldSkills Team USA’s website, “A student-led partnership of education and industry, SkillsUSA is America’s proud champion of the skilled trades, building the nation’s future skilled workforce by delivering graduates who are career ready, day one. SkillsUSA works year-round to instill positive attitudes, build self-esteem and empower students to excel in the career path of their choice and follow their passions. The organization has 850 national partners and is integral to the training in nearly 20,000 career and technical education classrooms.”
Like the Olympics inspire many athletes to aspire to greater heights, proponents of WorldSkills hope that the premiere event to showcase technical education will likewise draw young people’s attention to the plethora of career opportunities that exist within the skilled trades. The 2024 iteration anticipates attracting over 250,000 spectators, including students, public policymakers, employers, teachers, trainers, technical experts and government officials, which provides an ideal opportunity to promote the value of the trades on the world’s largest platform.
A promotional video available on WorldSkills USA’s YouTube page https://youtu.be/VkeGGdMQ734 sums up the importance of supporting the trades quite effectively: “The glory and beauty of athletics is undeniable, but athletics didn’t build this nation; technical skills did that…It’s time – time to show our team, America’s team, that we value them and what they represent. Because they represent us, our past, our present and our future, a future where technical skills once again receive the honor they deserve. And where America once again takes the lead in their development.”
Please take a moment to check out some of these articles that have been written recently:
https://www.repairerdrivennews.com/2023/11/17/skillsusa-national-auto-refinishing-champ-selected-to-compete-in-world-championships/
https://www.autobodynews.com/arkansas-woman-to-represent-u-s-in-2024-worldskills-car-painting-event.html
Watch this YouTube video to understand this competition more fully:
Check out these websites:
Please follow Lily Williams, SkillsUSA & WorldSkills on Social Media as well :)
Organizer
Jessica Neri
Organizer
Pocatello, ID