Saturday, October 10, 1992 ml

OCTOBER 2 HE CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM

COMING TO YOUR MAILBOX

SOON

How to get all the facts

Get all the facts!

Many Canadians say they want more information before answering the referendum question on October 26. Between October 9 - 12, households throughout the country will receive an 8-page summary pamphlet that contains another publication — the entire unedited Constitutional Agreement, reached in Charlottetown, August 28. Please look for this information in your mail and take the time to read it so that you can make a

truly informed decision on the upcoming referendum.

If you haven’t received this publication by October 13, call the toll-free number below and a copy will be sent to your home.

1-800-561-1188 Deaf or hearing impaired: 1-800-465- (Try/TDp)

@ Saturday, October 10, 1992

AroundTOWN

HOW ARE YOU VOTING

ON OCT. 26?

A question you have probably heard a hundred times. For those who are still undecided about how to vote on the constitution referendum, Selkirk College will be presenting a non-political information forum. Instructors Bill Sloan and Andy Shadrack will provide historical and politically scientific information to the audience and questions will be encouraged. The forum takes place from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Oct. 15 and is

free.

HELP _AVAILABLE.

The Family Support Institute, established in 1986, provides strength and support for families. Through workshops and seminars local parents are trained on topics such as sibling issues, sexuality, relationship building and advocacy. These parents are available for support and information. In Castlegar call Arlene Lizee at 365-6813, or Norma Collier 365-7462.

Our

Takin

Corinne Jackson ‘ NEWS REPORTER

Mary Jackson has her cake and she’s eating it too. She is also enjoying it.

After supporting herself through post- graduate studies by working as a body shop mechanic, Jackson continued at the shop for 13 years and then struck out on her own. And quite successfully too.

Jackson — who describes herself as a “tool to facilitate information” — now travels throughout North America giving seminars to women on car care.

Most recently she delivered a Women at the Wheel conference with some 150 women at Castlegar’s Kalawsky Pontiac- Buick-GMC Ltd.

“There is a lot of interest and hunger for information,” Jackson says.

But she explains that her workshops are “more than about cars. It’s about managing our lives as best as possible.

“I feel really privileged to be reaching out to so many women.

“It’s a small part in what I hope will be

| a better balance in terms of participation

of women in all career areas, including all male bastions,” Jackson says. It’s a bastion that, at a young age,

-4 Jackson discovered and wanted to break

into. She grew up with five brothers and describes the experience as “a secret

: | party for the boys that I was never

invited to. “I was brought up believing that there

4 was all this lingo that I was never privy

to.

“But I found it was just something guys do. You open a hood, kick the tires and talk carburetors.”

Still, Jackson felt she had been cheated out of something. As though there was a “restriction of information.

“Somehow that whole area (of

| knowledge about cars) didn’t exist for me.

“It wasn’t fair that part of this should not have been open to me,” she explains.

Jackson says her initial reasons for becoming interested in cars was that the lack of “access to information created a sort of rebellion.

“Part of me rebelled when I recognized that information is one of the ways to make intelligent decisions about anything,” she says.

With a degree in political science under her wing, then finding out she was accepted into a doctorate program at Berkeley, Jackson chose to trade in her time at the library for time in the shop.

While pursuing her thirst for knowledge about cars, she realized that there were a lot of people just like her. They wanted to know more about their car, but felt foolish asking questions.

“I thought I really want to try this idea I have. Even though I may starve in the process.

Jackson laughs as she remembers how at first she “had a love-hate, emphasis on the hate, relationship with my car.

News photo by Corinne Jackson

Dick Dunlop explores the engine of a vehicle, helping to explain the mechanics of a car to some 150 women who attended Mary Jackson’s Women at the Wheel seminar at Kalawsky Pontiac-Buick-GMC Ltd. Wednesday in Castlegar.

“I thought if that was my experience, it was probably the experience of others.”

Jackson started her classes in 1983, driving around from school to school with a four-cylinder engine in the back of a station wagon.

Since then she has given up the battery and the station wagon. Now she flies from her Vail, Colo., home to give talks.

Two years ago she wrote a book — The Greaseless Guide to Car Care Confidence- Take the Terror Out of Talking To Your Mechanic — to add to her list of accomplishments.

Jackson’s book and workshops are aimed at letting women get to know how their car works as easy as possible.

She believes that “there is a general feeling in society that we put people in a position where they have to communicate about something that’s as mysterious as the Starship Enterprise.

“I don’t think this is gender related, but women are not encouraged to learn about cars. 4

“No area of information should be cut off to anyone.”

Jackson’s own learning is an ongoing process which is one of the reasons she enjoys her work.

Part of this learning comes with the nature of the industry itself. Some of it from her participants.

“For me it’s a really positive business. The car industry is evolving in a lot of ways.”

But Jackson also says that “every time I do a program, I learn something.

“The questions from participants are a great stimulus for me. They prompt me to start thinking about a new area.” ,

What may have begun as rebellion for Jackson has become an awareness and questioning of the world around her.

“I think I’m curious just about everything. Why the mountains rise up in areas and not in others.

According to Jackson, “I just think learning is a lot of fun and it keeps us interested in being here.”