May 31, 2010
Nation's Building News

The Official Online Newspaper of NAHB

FONT SIZE:  A  A  A
Home Builders Institute
HBI Students Assemble Keepsake Statues for Ministers Attending First G20 Labor Summit

As a keepsake for attending the first gathering of its kind earlier this spring in Washington, D.C., Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis presented labor and employment ministers from the world’s 20 largest economies a small statue of a globe designed by Jessica Hall, a student in the union brick program at the Cleveland Job Corps Center.

The design was chosen in a competition that was open to all Job Corps students.

Dennis Kirby, a former Home Builders Institute instructor, worked with carpentry, brick and painting students from his facilities maintenance program at the Cleveland center to make 70 statues from the design.

In addition to the keepsakes, a second project was to design a large world globe to be displayed at the Department of Labor (DOL) building commemorating the G-20 Summit.  The then Interim National Director of Job Corps, Lynn Intrepidi, and her staff commissioned the Albuquerque Job Corps Center to build the globe pictured.

HBI facilities maintenance instructor Gary Shavlik from the Frances Perkins program in Washington, D.C., helped place the large globe on a pedestal in front of DOL headquarters.

The ministers came to the April 20-21 conference to discuss the impact of the economic crisis on employment in their countries.

HBI, the workforce development arm of NAHB, is the largest national training contractor in Job Corps, placing more than 2,000 young people annually in residential construction jobs. NAHB members work through their local home builders associations to help develop the curriculum, mentor students and provide internships or work-based learning opportunities.

For more information on HBI’s Job Corps programs, e-mail Nathan Kelly at HBI, or call him at 800-795-7955 x8936.

Also in This Issue