HMSE Camps Encourage Students to Explore Careers in the Trades

While their peers spent the summer relaxing and having fun, nine high school students in Western New York were learning and exploring life and careers in the skilled trades thanks to a Heavy Metal Summer Experience (HMSE) camp hosted by John W. Danforth Company, an MCAA member and one of the largest mechanical contractors in the northeast.

For six weeks, the students spent two-and-a-half hours every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon learning key skills, handling tools, and working on hands-on projects alongside professional tradespeople at Danforth’s piping and sheet metal shops.

The Danforth HMSE was the only one of the 22 HMSE camp sites across the United States and Canada held in New York state. For the company, the road to hosting the HMSE camp started when Robert Beck, the company’s CEO and MCAA’s President, heard about the program while attending a conference last fall. When he returned to the office, Beck charged Mike Bement, Vice President of Shop Operations, and Wendy Glauber, General Counsel & Vice President of Human Resources, with getting the program off the ground in time for this summer.

As they began planning their camp experience, the Danforth team relied heavily on the playbook and materials provided by HMSE. To help attract campers, they created fliers, marketing boards, and other materials for display at job fairs and school events and sent information to community organizations, schools, and industry associations. The company had a goal of 10 campers for the first year.

Bement and the Danforth team designed the program around a combination of hands-on classes, split between the sheet metal and piping trades, and field trips. Campers built items from a dustpan and a toolbox to a tablet holder and a lamp under the guidance of Danforth personnel who volunteered to act as coaches throughout the camp. The campers visited both SMART Local 71 and UA Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 22, where they heard from Training Coordinators about apprenticeship and what life is like as a journeyman worker in the industry. Parents were also invited to participate in the union visits.

“That turned out to be a great experience,” Bement said. “After one of the visits, one of our campers remarked, ‘that was definitely worth the trip,’ and the father of another student said that he was very impressed with what he saw. Now, they have an understanding of the classroom and hands-on education that comes with apprenticeship.”

Before graduating, the students visited the Lockport Memorial Hospital job site, where they could see all of the different job functions come together from start to finish.

At the end of the six weeks, everyone agreed that the program was a complete success, and came with a few pleasant surprises.

“I was really impressed with how engaged the students were from Day One,” Bement said. “We had better than 98% attendance. They asked good questions and were eager to do their projects. Several of them asked me if they could work at Danforth next summer, between their Junior and Senior years of high school. Others told me they plan to apply to the unions after graduation next year.”

Danforth is already looking forward to hosting another HMSE camp in 2024 and building on what they learned this year, with more students and possibly adding different shop locations within Danforth. Ultimately, Bement would like to establish a digital library of projects for campers to work on, ranging from basic to more advanced, creating the opportunity to have a camp where returning students work on more advanced projects and new students work on basic projects, while also seeing the sort of progress they can make if they come back for a second year of HMSE or choose a career in the trades.

Bement knows firsthand how the opportunity to learn about the trades can result in a life-long fulfilling career. He started at Danforth as a 19-year-old intern and has been with the company for 30 years.

“We know that exposing students to the trades isn’t necessarily taught in school or discussed at home,” he said. “MCAA and SMACNA members need to promote our industry and share what a rewarding career this can be.”

Another HMSE Camp, Another Perspective

The teens in Danforth’s HMSE camp aren’t alone in their enthusiasm for the experience. MCAA staffer Alex Newcomb traveled to the HMSE camp In Kansas City to find out what the program is all about. Here’s her account of the event:

Over the 3 days of camp, I learned so much more about what our member companies do out in the field and how the union training centers help prepare their apprentices for the future. Before arriving at the Local 2 sheet metal training center, I honestly had no idea how any of that worked. We got to use some of the tools the pros use to bend the metal and we all ended up with some form of a small toolbox.

The next day we went to the Local 8 plumbers & gasfitters training center. We learned how to cut metal pipe and left with an awesome shelf. Luckily it came apart easily enough to fit in my suitcase! We also got out first chance to solder some copper pipe together. This was by far my favorite part of the camp. Turns out it’s a lot harder than it looks! That afternoon we went to Local 155 pipefitters where we did some more soldering. By the end of that day, we were all pros!

On the last day we took a tour of an active construction site. I’ve seen them from afar but it’s very different close up. Pretty amazing, actually, how so many companies come together and just know what to do and get it done! When we got back to homebase, the Builders’ Association Training Center, we got a little hands-on training for drywall, glazing, and concrete too! During our end of camp ice cream party, I asked several of the teens how they felt about the experience and if they still wanted to pursue a career in the trades. Most said yes, some said yes but decided they wanted to do a different trade than when it started, and a handful said it wasn’t for them. I told them about the other paths they could take to stay near construction but be on the outside of it like project management or estimating which they all agreed sounded like the right move!

It was so cool to meet these young kids who all really want to be a part of the trades in some way. Working for MCAA has really opened my eyes to all the important work our member companies do every day. I can honestly say if I had this experience 10 years ago my life would probably be a lot different (but I love where I am now)!

The Kansas City camp was organized by the Mechanical Contractors Association of Kansas City (MCAKC) and Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association – Kansas City, in collaboration with trade partners SMART Local 2, Plumbers & Gasfitters Local 8, and Pipefitters Local Union 533.

These are just two examples of the HMSE camps hosted around the U.S. and in Canada in 2023. Find out who else hosted an event and learn how to host your own event on the HMSE website.