Northland Pioneer College (NPC) invites the public to watch as welding students from around Arizona push the limits of skill and speed, to forge raw steel into fire-breathing, meal-making machines in the Welders Without Borders Welding Thunder Team Fabrication Competition©. The two-day event will be held at NPC’s Holbrook Campus, October 10 and 11, 2025.
The theme of the event is the “Ultimate Rocket Stove, Griddle, and Grill,” and teams will be tasked with building devices that they will fire up on day two to cook a meal with and prove their design is truly ultimate. Participants in the event include NPC’s Northern Arizona Vocational Institute of Technology (NAVIT) welding students from Show Low and Holbrook High Schools, welding students at NPC’s Holbrook Campus, and students from KOFA High School in Yuma, AZ, Western Maricopa Education Center (MEC) Central in Glendale, AZ, Western MEC Southwest in Buckeye, AZ, Kingman High School, Flagstaff High School and Monument Valley High School.
“It’s going to be an exciting showdown of sparks and steel,” explained NPC Welding Faculty Wesley King. “In addition to crafting something to cook a meal with, students will gain valuable teambuilding skills and dive into the art of fabrication. Students will also be able to network with industry experts and potential employers and compete for a limited number of scholarships.”
The public will be invited to select the winner of the “People’s Choice” award. The event’s top welding teams will take home platinum, gold, silver, or bronze plaques, which will be presented during an awards ceremony at the conclusion of the event on Saturday, Oct. 11. There will also be a prize raffle and cookout. Judges include NPC industry partners from the American Welding Society: Randy Fox, Paul Moreno, Carl Vanhoose, and Brent Couch.
The Welding Thunder Team Fabrication Competition© is sanctioned by Welders Without Borders, a nonprofit group founded in 2000 by Professor Samuel Colton Sr. to promote welding education and opportunity. According to the group’s website, the effort brings together “welding professionals from around the world willing to share their knowledge and experience with students of welding to advance the future of the industry. The website states, “Welding serves all mankind. A knowledge that improves lives, builds nations, and gives hope to millions.”
The competition will be held at NPC’s Holbrook, Painted Desert Campus, located at 2251 Navajo Blvd, Holbrook, AZ, on Friday, October 10, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and on Saturday, October 11, from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. The awards ceremony and cookoff will commence directly after Saturday’s competition.
For more information about the event and NPC’s welding programs, contact NPC Faculty in Welding, Wesley King at Wesley.King@npc.edu or all (928) 524-7495.
