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Posted On: 04/02/2008

Grants awarded to steel-toed boot camps

PlantServices.com

Host of The Travel Channel’s “Made in America” and former “Cheers” star John Ratzenberger announced, at a press conference held at the Metal Matters 2008 executive summit, the national winners of the 2008 manufacturing camp grants awarded jointly by the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association Foundation (FMAF) and the Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs Foundation (NBTF). Twenty-six grants, ranging from $2,500 to $5,000, were awarded to not-for-profit organizations and educational institutions offering overnight or day camp experiences that introduce young people, ages 12 to 16, to careers in manufacturing and engineering.

Ratzenberger announced the recipients as co-founder of NBTF, a charitable organization dedicated to introducing young people to the pleasures of tinkering, along with Terrence Egan, director of the FMA Foundation (www.fma-foundation.org), an educational, research and charitable organization that promotes metalforming and fabricating technology in manufacturing.

A complete list of winners can be found at www.nutsandboltsfoundation.org and included:

• Manufacturing Dreams, Heart of Georgia Technical College, Dublin,
  Ga.
• Manufacturing a Career, BEST/Sauk Valley Community College, Peru, Ill.
• Welding, a Spark to Your Future, West Kentucky Community and Technical College, Paducah, Ky.
• Mind over Metal, Southern Maine Community College, South Portland, Maine.
• Steel My Summer at KVCC, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Kalamazoo, Mich.
• Girls Get S.M.A.R.T. (Summer Manufacturing and Robotics Training), Ulster BOCES, New Paltz, N.Y.
• Metal Magic, Jeff Tech, Reynoldsville, Pa.
• Camp Metalhead, Woonasquatucket Valley Community Build (dba the Steel Yard), Providence, R.I.
• Camp Wanna Weld, Nicolet Area Technical College, Rhinelander, Wis.

“I can think of no enterprise more worthy than one devoted to inspiring the next generation of engineers, builders and manufacturers,” Ratzenberger says. I am proud to be a partner with FMA and know that with each child who attends one of our camps or pursues a career in manufacturing, we are rebuilding America's foundation one tinkerer at a time.”

The camps target youth at the critical level of secondary education, exposing them to math, science and engineering principles, and giving them opportunities to see the technology being used in industry and the high level of skills that will be required from the workforce. “These camps provide youth with the exposure to vocational and technical trades that no longer exist in all public education systems,” Egan adds. “Inspiring youth to consider these trades will have a positive effect on graduation rates, increase the chance for them to earn a living wage, and produce a more qualified workforce and community development in impoverished areas.”