Dauphin County Cadette is breaking the mold

By Cathy Molitoris

Wearing a protective jacket, apron, gloves and a helmet, Ella Prizniak bends over a workstation in her Dauphin County garage. She’s only 12 years old, but Ella is already a pro at welding, demonstrating the confidence and courage of a Girl Scout as she expertly wields a torch to craft a snowman sculpture out of horseshoes and pieces of rebar.

Ella’s dad, Dave, introduced her to welding a year ago. “My dad had a welder he used to fix things, and I came out into the garage to see what he was doing,” Ella said. “He said, ‘Do you want to try it?’ and I said, ‘Sure!’ It just seemed really interesting and fun to be able to fix things and make things.”

Ella admits she was a little apprehensive about picking up the welding torch, which produces an arc with temperatures topping 15,000 degrees. “I was nervous, but I wanted to do it,” she said. “It was a new opportunity to try something I had never done before.”

Under the supervision of her father, Ella began welding pieces of metal together, getting used to the torch and how long to hold it in place. Soon, she was crafting sculptures, including making her name out of horseshoes, creating flowers, clovers, mushrooms and more.

She made multiple-compartment pencil cups as gifts for friends and family last Christmas, and she created pumpkins by standing horseshoes up on end.

“The pumpkins are the hardest thing I’ve done,” Ella said. “It’s hard to keep it all together, and it falls apart a lot when I’m working on it.”

When she’s done welding a piece, she lets it sit overnight to cool completely before spray painting it in various colors.

Her work caught the eye of a store owner in Cape May, N.J., where the Prizniaks have a summer place. Ella began selling her creations at a boutique there. Her business, called Welded Creations by Ella, has been well-received by customers.

“She has sold quite a lot,” said Ella’s mom, Shannon. “She’s sold lots of pumpkins so far, and she just finished making snowmen, and already she has people ordering them.”

Dave and Shannon let Ella spend the money she’s earned so far on whatever she wanted. She recently bought a 9,000-plus-piece Lego Titanic model.

“Now that she’s bought that, we’re going to show her how to keep the books and keep track of income and expenses,” Dave said.

Materials for Ella’s projects come from a variety of sources, including local home improvement stores.

“We have also started going to yard sales,” Ella said. She recently picked up some old-fashioned curling irons and bottle openers, and she already has a plan in mind to use them.

“The curlers look like a bird’s beak to me, and the bottle openers look like fish, so I thought I could make a crane with a fish in its mouth,” she said. “I like experimenting and using my imagination to come up with stuff.”

Ella, who is a Cadette in Girl Scout Troop 11264, loves being a girl who welds, even though her hobby is dangerous at times.

“I have gotten burned on my arm and on my foot,” she said. Her scariest moment happened when a freak spark fell behind her helmet onto her cheek.

“I came inside to my mom and said, ‘I’m never doing this again,’” Ella recalled. “But I was back out there the next day.”

What prompted her to pick up the torch again?

“I was nervous to try again, but I was like, ‘You can do it. You’re going to be OK,’” she said. “I wanted to push past my fear.”

Girl Scouts encourages girls, just like Ella, to try new things, which helps build their confidence, their courage and character.

Ella encourages other girls to try welding – and fishing, another of her favorite pastimes. It’s fun to explore other activities.

“You’ve got this,” she said. “Yes, it’s dangerous, but the chance of something happening is low if you have the right gear and have assistance. Plus, you can make some really beautiful things.”

She said girls should not hesitate to try activities that traditionally might have been something mostly boys pursued.

“I feel like anyone can do this,” she said. “Even though it might seem like something for boys, it’s not.  Anyone can do anything they put their mind to.”

New patch program provides hands-on STEM opportunities

Ella’s interest in welding squares nicely with a new patch initiative launched by Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania in partnership with three local companies.

The “What’s in your toolbox?” patch program offers hands-on opportunities to explore careers in architecture, engineering and construction , straight from the experts themselves.

Our council has teamed up with midstate companies JEM Group, a general contractor, Warehouse, an architecture firm, and LIVIC Civil, an engineering company, to provide content for Girl Scouts of all ages.

For more information, click here.