by Ivy Letherwood, special embedded reporter at Tom Dwyer
As a 14-year old girl, I may not be qualified to write an article on an automotive repair shop I watched for half a day. No, not even that. I watched mainly the marketing guy, who’s my dad, write the company newsletter. Since I am still a student, I am also not quite familiar with automotive terms. With that still in mind, I was tasked with writing a little bit on my experience of ‘take your child to work day.’ You know, because why not?
While I do joke, I say seriously that Tom’s shop is an inviting place for car repair. Although, as I have no past experience with other offices, let alone an automotive office, in another’s eyes I may be wrong. But, from what I could see when employee’s answered to clients they were very kind and helpful. Even outside of talking with customers, everyone was thoughtful and cracked a joke now and then; creating a nice energetic environment.
Even though I have little to no experience with work offices, I have had experience seeing the Tom Dwyer tent down at the riverfront summer concerts. Every year Tom’s booth is setup every concert with a fun drawing contest for kids. The contest is whoever can draw the best design for the car of the future wins a prize. With the competition engaging kids, the cool music, and the enthusiastic representative there to help, Tom shows that it’s possible to make car repair interesting; well, okay, not boring.
But getting back as to why a middle schooler is writing an article, it’s ‘take your kid to work day.’ For kids, a good reason to get out of a little school and maybe hang out with your folks a bit. For parents, a good reason to bond with your child and to possibly teach them some things they can use when they grow up. ‘Take the kid to work day’ was never a popular date to begin with, but a few years ago it seemed to be something people participated in more. But now no one seems to remember the date at all. In fact, at my school I was the only one in my grade to partake in the “holiday.” For what reason I couldn’t say, but my guess would be that it’s because the date isn’t talked about anymore. So, mark your calendars because in 2018 it’s April 26th, and it could make for a good story depending on how it goes.
All in all though, I’d day Tom Dwyer’s repair shop is a pretty cool place. Their new waiting room is elegantly decorated with the Portland airport’s old carpet pattern, and they have nice employees. Also for you candy lovers, there’s a sweets bowl by the front desk. In spite of my lack of knowledge on cars I can safely say the people there know what they’re doing; and if you have little knowledge like me then a visit over probably wouldn’t hurt.
