Liz Sweet has a plan for this summer: Learn how to read a blueprint, how to work with tools and build a shed so she can help her dad build one in the backyard.
Safety goggles firmly affixed and hands steadying the circular saw, Sweet is all business as she slides the power tool along a plank of wood on a warm June afternoon. The rat-a-tat of nearby hammering is her background music.
The 12-year-old, who just finished sixth grade at St. Lawrence Elementary School, makes this look easy.
Sweet is one of 18 middle-school students from Cincinnati’s West side who are working together in this summer’s Construction Camp at Resurrection School. Her brother, Matthew, 11, is also attending Construction Camp, which is organized by the
Southwest Ohio Region Workforce Investment Board and supported by the
Spirit of Construction Fund and the
SC Ministry Foundation. This marks its second year.
“I heard you get to work with tools and build things,’’ says Sweet. “I like to do more boy things than girl things. I think it’s fun. It’s pretty awesome.”
Sweet may not realize it, but the camp is also teaching her and her construction partners – from Midway Elementary, Roberts Academy, Carson Elementary and Resurrection School - how to apply what they have been learning in math and science classes. The three-week camp teaches them job readiness skills, how to work with others and how to learn by doing.
In addition, the program gives students a taste of a trade that is hungry for new workers. Construction trade workers, many of whom are baby boomers, are beginning to age out of the workforce, leaving a void of skilled workers, says Anne Mitchell, who organizes the camp and also organizes after-school construction clubs.
This year’s project, a 10-foot-by-13-foot garden shed, will be fully equipped: The students will install windows and doors, a sink and a fan in the ceiling and metal roofing. They will also paint the structure – a crowd favorite – and are working with welders to create iron garden ornaments.
Just three days in and they had already taken a mountain of lumber and constructed the floor, the framing, the walls and the ceiling. They even used a jigsaw to create some flourishes and flair to the structure.
The completed shed will be auctioned in October at the Spirit of Construction’s gala event, which honors the region’s construction titans.
A team of skilled craftsmen and women from
Associated Builders and Contractors, all of whom volunteer their time, are on site every day working with the kids.
Kevin Murray, a volunteer from Cincinnati Building and Contracting, has been on the construction site – which is Resurrection’s parking lot in Price Hill. It is his second year volunteering.
“It’s really a lot of fun to see the kids. Look at them,’’ Murray says. “The kids are the ones who really blow me away. It’s really about the satisfaction of watching them enjoy it.”
Campers, who attend from noon to 4 p.m. daily through the end of June, also get exercise time, a healthy snack and some craft time inside the school.
Amy Beal, a graduate student at Northern Kentucky University, and Jennifer Toebbe, who teaches physical education at Sands Montessori and is working toward her master’s degree in counseling at Xavier University, work with the kids on the “inside projects” and talk with them about career choices.
The first few days, each camper drew a blue print of a project they wanted to build from the scrap materials to take home. Some plans included a closet storage system, a bird house and a small box. They will get to take home those projects, a garden ornament that they welded and a tool pouch that includes a hammer, tape measure, carpenter’s pencil, tinted safety goggles and water bottle.
Mitchell beams as she discusses the program and the impact it has on the students. This year, four of the students are homeless. One is autistic. But none of that matters.
“Most of these kids didn’t know each other before this week. Now they are part of team. They are working together on something.’’ she says. “Many of these kids have challenges.
“But they chose to be here. To have an impact on their future.”
Do Good:
• Follow the construction progress on the group’s blog
Building our Future: Construction Camp.
• Follow Anne Mitchell on
Twittter.
• Donate materials or time by
emailing Mitchell.
Chris Graves is the Assistant Vice President of Digital and Social Media at the Powers Agency. You can follow her on
Twitter.