Some really cool summer camps are popping up across the country for girls. Usually geared towards young women between the ages of 8-18 or so, these camps focus on various areas of construction skills and many of them include a roofing component.
Oregon has the Girls Build summer camp series where girls attend for a week at a time and have four 80-minute workshops per day. Offered several times during the summer at various locations, they work on smaller projects throughout the week but also work one big project together. In 2018, NWiR sponsored two of the members of the Women Roofers from the Rutherford Housing Partnership in North Carolina to attend the Girls Build camp in Oregon to get a first-hand look at how the camp is operated.
Sometimes the camps are run by independent non-profit organizations and sometimes they are part of a larger organization.
The Construction Management Department at Colorado State University offers a high school summer institute called “Construction Management for Women.” Staffed by professors and students at the university, participants will spend time with professional women representing AEC industries as well as college mentors to work on building their confidence and developing an understanding of construction management and related careers. The institute takes place on the CSU campus place June 7-11 in Fort Collins, and we cannot wait to hear more about it from the participants.
Members of ABC Eastern PA and CSI Greater Lehigh Valley Chapter banded together several years ago out of a desire to create a spark within the girls to explore additional skill training in the local career technical schools, and post-secondary training with a local craft training program, two-year or four-year college path in engineering, architecture, construction management, or any other construction related major. With support from the CSI Foundation, the founders created a template for the camp and a manual that can be used by other organizations to replicate the camp in other places. NWiR members Shelly Higgins, LeeAnn Slattery, and Jennifer Keegan have participated in the camp and supporters and mentors in the past years. This year’s Let’s Build Construction Camp for Girls powered by the CSI Foundation is June 20-24 in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Finally, one of our own NWiR members has stepped forward to replicate the Let’s Build Construction Camp for Girls powered by the CSI Foundation, with a new location in Northeast Ohio. Shelly Higgins of NWiR and S-5 Metals is spearheading the project which involves many moving parts and pieces and NWiR is a proud sponsor of the camp. The camp will be held in Northeast Ohio using Mahoning County Career & Technical Center (MCCTC) as a base and will run from June 27 – July 1. She is joined by many other NWiR members from around the country. The camp will be held in Northeast Ohio using Mahoning County Career & Technical Center (MCCTC) as a base and will run from June 27 – July 1. The camp has received most of the materials from the very generous manufacturers and suppliers in the construction industry. There are still some things needed such as lumber and flooring. If you would like to be a part of the experience, maybe you would be interested in building mock roofs for the various roof installations? Would you like to help precut and stage materials? Would you like to help instruct and mentor the campers? A cleanup crew is needed to tear it all down after the camp is complete. There are many ways to get involved, contact Shelly at eohletsbuild@gmail.com
It is exciting to see the growth of girls in roofing and other construction fields – and we look forward to meeting these young women on the jobsite or in the office in the years to come!
