A group of women gathered Saturday for a hands-on workshop on practical home skills, from starting a generator to using power tools, in an effort to build resilience in the community.
The Women’s Do It Yourself Empowerment Workshop, held March 7, was organized by Allied Rental Center with support from YES! Waste Management and produced by Notable Events by Janette. The event introduced participants to basic home maintenance skills such as operating generators, power washing, using drills and stud finders, and building small planters from reclaimed materials.
Mackenzie Stoller, co-owner of Allied Rental Center, said the idea grew out of a conference she attended focused on women and resilience.
“We’re here because of an event I went to, which was a conference for women and resilience, and that really stuck with me,” Stoller said. “I began to have more conversations about how our business could implement it into the community and empower women and be more engaging with them and provide them with some resources and tools so they can be resilient.”
The workshop began with a demonstration on portable generators, an especially relevant topic in the territory, where power outages are common. Participants learned how to safely start generators, operate the choke, manage fuel, and properly place the machines outdoors.
“We started off with learning about generators,” Stoller said. “It was a huge, cool thing to see women feel like we could do this.” The demonstrations included several types of generators, from smaller inverter models that can power electronics or refrigerators to larger machines capable of running multiple appliances during an outage.
John Stoller, also a co-owner of Allied Rental Centers, said safety was a major focus of the session.
“We talked about safety on how to start generators and what to do when they’re started, how to maintain them, and how to stay safe with them,” he said. “You want to make sure the exhaust is in the right area, make sure your gas cans are in the right area, and make sure you know how to shut the gas off and on … You can get hurt doing anything, so you want to be safe.”
“We want women to feel empowered,” said Janette Millin Young, a former Virgin Islands senator and founder of Notable Events by Janette. She highlighted how participants built planters from reclaimed pallets, noting that many were using a drill for the first time. “One of the most important things that happened was the planters. The women were able to get wood, build their own planters, and use the drill, and it was probably the first time many of these women held a drill. Talk about empowerment and self-reliance,” she said.
The day’s hands-on demonstrations were led in part by retired U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Cuteill Young, who brought decades of experience in civil engineering, safety, and emergency management to the workshop.
“From an emergency management piece, we decided to do power generation,” he said. “We wanted to give the participants an idea of what’s needed during a power outage, whether it’s long-term or short-term, and show them how to use a generator safely while keeping in mind the hazards.”
The hands-on nature of the workshop made a big impression. “Every time we allowed them to pull the cord, the women were applauding each other,” he said. “Because it’s a sense of accomplishment … We want women to be empowered to take care of themselves,” Young said. “And I think they walked away feeling like, ‘Yes, now I can do this.’”
After the generator session, participants moved on to tool demonstrations, learning how to locate wall studs and safely drill into surfaces without hitting electrical or plumbing lines. They then built small wooden planters using reclaimed shipping pallets. The workshop also offered food, time for socializing, and a raffle for attendees.
For some participants, the workshop addressed a practical need, learning skills that are potentially handled by others in the household. “One of my concerns is that we have to be taught properly how to better take care of ourselves,” said Joanie DeLugo. “Whether it is in our finances or the day-to-day work we have to care for around the house.”
Delugo said she attended the event in order to learn, “I have a husband that normally does this stuff, and I’ve always been curious to be able to do it myself,” DeLugo said. “This way I can just learn on my own.”
Organizers described the event as a pilot program that could expand into additional workshops covering topics such as disaster preparedness, environmental practices, and home maintenance. “We definitely want to expand more and do more of these pop-up events,” Mackenzie Stoller said. “This is a pilot program that we could expand in so many different ways.”
