MADRAS — They all worked in Bright Wood’s Plant 13.

Toni Martinez, 52, ticketed and packaged window and door parts. Marie Hogge, 43, graded and looked for defects. John Spalinger, 37, made sure the dimensions were correct and oversaw the operation line.

And this summer, as many adults plan a summer vacation, these three laid-off employees will head back to school, in search of careers after Bright Wood.

“Ideally, in two years I’ll be working and glad I did this,” Martinez said. “It means a lot to be 52 and have to change your whole life.”

Since February, Bright Wood Corp., the Madras-based company that makes door frames, window casings and other wood components, has laid off about 220 workers from Madras.

After the layoffs, the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council requested a national emergency grant for $900,000 to specifically help laid off Bright Wood employees.

As COIC waits to hear back on the status of its grant request, Hogge, Spalinger and Martinez are taking advantage of federal retraining benefits through the Trade Act program. It helps those who lost jobs due to work sent overseas or from competition from imported products.

For some, it can provide up to $20,000 for a two-year retraining program.

By next winter, Martinez pictures herself working at Opal Day Spa in Madras after obtaining a degree from Phagans’ Central Oregon Beauty College. Both Martinez and Spalinger are headed to Central Oregon Community College, Martinez to become a medical technician and Spalinger to learn computer-assisted drafting.

Last year was the first time in Bright Wood’s 47-year history it had a large-scale layoff. Around 140 employees were let go that time.

The company, which still has plants in Redmond and Bend, remains Central Oregon’s third-largest employer, with 1,057 workers, behind St. Charles and Les Schwab Tire Centers, according to Economic Development for Central Oregon.

“It’s as difficult of a year that I’ve had in 25 years in the business,” said Bright Wood President Dallas Stovall.

“Housing prices are still a ways away from rebounding; it’s tough. We’re taking our hits, trust me,” Stovall said.

Toni Martinez

When the boss pulled Martinez into his office, it was March 3. She had been working at Bright Wood for nearly a decade and had been reassured earlier in the year that she wouldn’t be laid off. Forty-five minutes into the day, she was told to get her stuff.

“My boss called me in (to his office) and said, your name came up and so we decided to let you go,” Martinez said.

She went home, had a cup of coffee and headed to the employment office.

Martinez was worried. Before spending a decade of her life working at Bright Wood, she had struggled.

“My biggest fear is being poor like I was before Bright Wood, because I was really poor,” she said.

Then a single mom raising two children, Martinez worked in a grocery store, and some weeks, the store could not give her 40 hours.

“I had children at home, and there were times that I had to decide if they were going to eat or if I was going to eat,” she said.

Now, she owns her own house and her own car, paid for with the $12 per hour she earned at Bright Wood.

If she had to return to a minimum-wage job, she would have to let the house and the car go and it would feel like a waste of years of hard work.

Sitting at the COIC office in Madras, Martinez and her employment counselor scoured the Internet for jobs. Since Martinez’s home and all of her family are in Madras, relocating wasn’t really an option.

She quickly found that the job market in Madras didn’t have much to offer her. Most of the jobs were minimum wage and offered less than 40 hours per week, or they were looking for experience she didn’t have.

Although unemployment rates in Central Oregon for all three counties fell slightly because of seasonal hiring, Jefferson County’s unemployment rate for April was the highest it’s been since 1986, and the county was the only one of the three to lose jobs in 2007, according to Steve Williams, a regional economist with the Oregon Employment Department.

Williams said the hardest-hit sectors were manufacturing and wood products, the category under which Bright Wood falls.

“That’s why I opted to go back to school as part of the Trade Act,” Martinez said. “That’s what I needed to do.”

Marie Hogge

Marie Hogge had been at Bright Wood for nine years. She was the type of employee that would work extra hours around the holidays.

“I was there a lot of hours, and I didn’t miss much work,” she said.

“I was standing there … and I said, ‘You’re laying me off, aren’t you?’” Hogge said. “And I said, ‘Why me?’”

Her foremost concern: Where could she possibly make the same amount of money, about $12 per hour, without having to relocate?

“I called my girlfriend Tammy, and she said, ‘Go back to school and get your nail license; we need someone to do nails at the spa,’” Hogge said.

“I thought, I don’t know. I didn’t think I could make the same amount, but she talked about how much they are turning people away.”

It helped that Hogge’s first love is cosmetology. Before working at Bright Wood, she worked in a salon, cutting hair. She’s looking forward to wearing nice clothes to work, to returning home without sawdust all over her and to having conversations with her future clients.

On Tuesday morning, Hogge sat in a COIC office while receiving help from her employment counselor, Keely Jefferies, who is working with about 35 laid-off Bright Wood employees. She estimated about 60 are considering retraining options.

Jefferies said some are not taking advantage of the Trade Act program because either they don’t know about it or because they never considered going back to school.

“When a person comes in, and we take them through the enrollment process, they often come from a mind-set where retraining and education wasn’t a possibility; they went straight to work,” Jefferies said.

“We see a lot of that with Bright Wood employees; they just haven’t thought of that potential.”

So, Jefferies asks: What did you do at Bright Wood?

Often they say, “I was a grader” or “I packaged.”

Then she asks, “So on those days that you didn’t love your job, what did you want to be?”

“And it gets them rolling and thinking,” she said. “And I say, ‘Go out into the world and see what others are doing, and if it looks fun. …’ The thing about the Trade Act is, it’s a one-shot deal. … If I don’t believe you’re ready, I’ll say, ‘Take a breath, look around and try to think: Would I like to do that?’”

John Spalinger

For Spalinger, who is a little nervous about returning to school for the first time in 15 years, being laid off was almost a relief.

He was burnt out from working at Bright Wood and could never afford to go back to school on his own, he said. After searching the classified ads and noticing a few ads looking for drafters, he remembered how much he loved drawing blueprints in high school.

Martinez said she’s getting used to the idea of it now, too. She’s refreshing her basic math skills and hopes there will be other older people in her medical technician classes.

And for Hogge, after she had some time to adjust to the change, she’s elated.

“I’m excited. I think getting laid off, honestly was the best thing that happened,” she said.

“My family and friends are happy. … People will have respect for me,” she said. “At Bright Wood it was just about getting the wood out.”

For more info

• Central Oregon Community College, general information: 383-7700

• Central Oregon’s WorkSource offices:

Madras: 475-2382

Prineville: 447-8076

Redmond: 548-8196

Bend: 388-6070