Cleveland-area Girl Scouts recently earned a badge with the help of the Oatey University Training Center.
It started in January when the center was filled with an unexpected crowd, not who you'd expect to see at one of the leading plumbing supply manufacturers.
"We're learning to put together P-traps," a young girl scout said.
Two Cleveland-area Girl Scout troops, all third and fourth graders, got hands-on experience with STEM and plumbing.
Oatey's Women's Resource Network hosted the event to help the young women complete "The House That She Built" badge. With an emphasis on the she and girl power!
The idea is to introduce the young women to construction and the skilled trades, which are typically male-dominated fields and let them know there's a place for them as well.
"My goal would be that they have an open mind and that maybe one or two of them says, 'I want to do something in that area,'" said Samantha Benedict, Oatey Women's Resource Network. "If someone doesn't want to be a plumber that's OK, but maybe they want to be a construction worker or electrician, or you name it. We need all these people to work together. So, hopefully we just spark a little interest in a couple of them."
Benedict said it's critical the industry builds up the construction pipeline, including bringing more women into the field, and exposure like this event makes a difference.
The young women took what they learned at the center to work on their blueprints before returning for presentations to get their badges.
