1 minute read
Anna Grace, changing tires and times
WORDS BY JANE BENEFIELD
When visiting Carpinteria Tire and Wheel on Palm Avenue for new tires or car repairs, you will be greeted by a cheerful, welcoming young woman. Don’t mistake her for the office manager.
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Anna Grace Butler is a certified auto mechanic with extensive knowledge of cars, from tires to transmissions. Ask her what a zerk is, and she’ll explain it in a way you’ll understand. Her presence in the repair shop is a breath of fresh air and strong evidence that a woman’s place is wherever she wants it to be.
Anna Grace is 20 years old and has a degree from Santa Barbara City College—an associate of science degree in automotive technology. She grew up with two younger sisters and two older brothers, and her outsized enthusiasm of cars and trucks bonded her with her dad from early on. “We worked on Volkswagen buses and a Ford Thunderbird, which if you have any interest in cars, you know that those specifically can be problematic,” she says.
Anna Grace intends to amass as much mechanical knowledge as possible with the goal of someday “giving it back” by becoming an instructor herself. When she graduated from the automotive program, the instructional staff included just one woman. Anna Grace is determined to change that number.
She credits being in the right place at the right time for her current employment. “I stopped at Risdon’s 76 for gas and was chatting with the attendant about the truck I was driving at the time (a 1996 Dodge Ram). My now boss overheard me talking about it and offered me a job,” she says. At the time she was a month away from her 18th birthday, thus a month shy of the minimum age requirement in the industry. Her future boss, Don Risdon, was willing to wait.
Anna Grace buys her tools through various suppliers but often waits for October when Tools for the Cause matches her purchases with donations toward breast cancer research. Her tools stand out from the others at Carpinteria Tire and Wheel in their Madonna Inn pink.
Every day presents challenges and rewards, but Anna Grace counts the rebuild of her own Dodge truck’s 46LE transmission as the most satisfying job yet. In her usual cheery way, she confesses it was also one of the hardest. The 27-year-old truck is now back up and running—280,000 miles and counting.
