Inaugural girls construction camp kicks off in Gansevoort
GANSEVOORT, NY — Middle school girls from across the Capital Region have a unique opportunity this summer to pick up some hands-on skills at a girls-only construction camp in Gansevoort.
| Written by Olivia Jaquith, WRGB
The Northeast Construction Trades Workforce Coalition (NCTWC), in conjunction with Whitbeck Construction and WSWHE BOCES, worked to organize the week-long camp, concluding Friday with Construction Olympics.
“The Construction Olympics is set up in honor that this year is an Olympic year, and we want to have the kids do some games that they can compete with each other, can really use some of the different disciplines that they’ll use and learn this week during camp to really go out and be competitive at the end of the week and possibly win some awards,” Whitbeck Construction Co-owner Matthew Whitbeck told CBS6.
Already, by the afternoon of their first day at camp, girls had built their own toolboxes and sawhorses.
“They’re working on some painting,” Whitbeck said. “We taught them how to use speed squares so that they understand how to apply the geometry that they’re learning in school to real-life situations and how it applies to construction.”
NCTWC President and Curtis Lumber Vice President Doug Ford said that the camp was an idea several years in the making.
“Our mission, simply, is to educate students, teachers, school counselors and parents about the opportunities in the trades,” he said. “Students are not exposed to the trades as much as they should be, [through] no fault of the counselors. We found that, as an industry, we’ve done a horrible job educating the schools and the counselors on the opportunities. So, we’re playing catchup and doing some work to fix that problem.”
Ford and Whitbeck said that work over the past seven years has been paying off. They both noted that they have seen greater interest, especially from girls and women, in the trades.
“This isn’t a gender-specific type of role, and I think the more that we introduce them to it, the more it empowers them and the more it encourages them to get involved,” Whitbeck said. “One of the things that we teach is that whether you get into construction or not, likely one of the most expensive things you’ll own in your life will be your home, and you should know how to work on that.”
The girls participating in this week’s inaugural camp come from different school districts across the Capital Region, so Ford and Whitbek noted that they hope the camp activities and games will encourage new friendships.
Moving forward, lobbyist and head of the Vandervort Group, Todd Vandervort, said he would like to see this camp and others like it expand.
“The demand is there, and legislators are now well aware of who we are and the needs,” he told CBS6. “We’re seeking other funding sources, and we’re talking to the governor’s office, as well. We want everybody to understand, there needs to be a pipeline of the students being knowledgeable of the trades, and if they know that, the students do, then they have other choices they can make.”