8x12 Box

By DAN NIELSEN

dnielsen@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Construction trades students at the Traverse Bay Area Career-Tech Center and at Northwestern Michigan College are learning skills while helping raise money for a scholarship fund.

Crews at the two schools are creating 8-by-12-foot structures that will be raffled off in May at the TBA CTC Expo. Money raised will go to future scholarships offered by the Home Builders Association Grand Traverse Area.

Builder and HBAGTA member Brian Terhune arranged for donated materials for the two NMC structures. Terhune is acting as mentor for the NMC students.

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Zachary Fortuna, 18, of Lake Leelanau, assembles a component at the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District Career-Tech Center.

Record-Eagle photos/Dan Nielsen

Josh Loeb, of Alden, checks a measurement at Northwestern Michigan College.

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Ryan McCoon, of Endura Performance Homes, and Dave Williams, of Westwind Construction, are mentors for CTC students. They arranged for donated materials for the two CTC structures.

The project’s main purpose, said HBAGTA Executive Officer Judy Vajda, is to bring greater awareness to the skills trades as a viable career choice. It also provides real-world experience for the students. And the money raised will give a boost to future building trades students.

“All of it feeds into the scholarship program,” said McCoon. “We’re trying to be a catalyst.”

HBAGTA members created the organization’s scholarship program to encourage young people to take up the building trades. The program began in 1984 but has taken on increasing importance in recent years as the area has experienced a growing shortage of construction workers. It has awarded more than $100,000 to NMC and its students over the years.

Zachary Fortuna, 18, of Lake Leelanau, already has a part-time job with a local builder. He installed flooring in Suttons Bay last summer. He’s in the building trades program at CTC, and plans to work fulltime in building trades after he graduates.

CTC construction trades instructor Tom Sensabaugh said his 37 students will have both their structures roughed out before the holiday break. Students will switch to finish work in January. The two small buildings taking shape at CTC have identical basic structures. They feature lots of windows, Sensabaugh said, to let in lots of natural light, but the openings are high on the walls so the eventual owner of each structure can make full use of wall space for whatever purpose they choose.

NMC instructor Devin Hill said his 12 students collectively decided to make their two structures into infrared saunas with changing rooms. They chose to use an angled flat roof design so it would be easy to install solar panels or a green roof in the future.

Caleb Norris, of Norris Design Productions, met with students at both schools to capture ideas and draw the structures.

All four structures are sponsored by HBAGTA suppliers: Northern Building Supply, Kingsley Lumber, Preston Feather and Builders FirstSource.

Photographs and videos of the construction process will be on display at the HBAGTA Home Expo on Jan. 19 and 20 at Grand Traverse Resort & Spa.

Several of the NMC students working on the project already have onthe- job experience.

“Most of them are already working,” Hill said.

Josh Loeb, of Alden, started a local construction job in November.

“This is my introduction to the trade,” he said of the NMC class. “I’m changing careers to make my dream come true.”

Loeb plans to homestead in Ontario.

Liam Hardy, left, and Peter Colombo install roof decking on one of the structures being built at Northwestern Michigan College.

Record-Eagle/Dan Nielsen