S2:E8 Coffee Conversations - Giving Back in the Roofing Industry

By Colin Sheehan, RCS Reporter. 

Learn about the roofing foundations that are doing research, granting scholarships and helping the community.  

Coffee Conversations is where the roofing community meets every other week to discuss what’s happening in the industry. This episode was sponsored by Cotney Construction Law and discussed the importance of giving back to the organizations currently making a difference inside and outside the roofing community. 

RCS partner, Heidi J. Ellsworth, talked with Trent Cotney who invited four foundation representatives, Chuck Chapman, Kyle Thomas, Rod Petrick and Mike Silvers talk about their organizations and how people can get involved. 

They kicked off the discussion by diving into the Cotney Construction Law Giving Back campaign. The purpose of this campaign was to incentivize people to give to one of these four associations. Every donation made through the end of December will be matched by Cotney up to $2,500.  

“I feel very blessed to be part of the roofing industry,” said Trent. “I was taught you give back your time, your talent and your treasure. The foundation’s that are set up do great work. They provide scholarships, they provide training, they provide an avenue to get new people into the industry, which I think is critical especially now with a lack of skilled labor. In addition to that, there’s a lot of great research projects that come up. So what I wanted to do is incentivize people to give.”  

Chuck Chapman is the chairman of the Davis Memorial Foundation and continued the conversation by explaining some of the organizations history and how they’ve been able to help fund student’s educations since 1996.  

“We support students in the Western United States who are associated with the roofing industry. And since our inception, we had over 142 scholarships to the tune of over $600,000. It's really, really wonderful to be able to support the families and the students involved with our industry.”  

You can donate to the Davis Memorial Foundation through their website. Additionally, you can name your scholarship in honor of somebody or your company. Each scholarship recipient is awarded $5,000 and the more money the foundation can raise, the more scholarships they can give.  

Kyle Thomas is the president of the Roofing Alliance, a foundation created by the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA). The Roofing Alliance promotes the advancement of the roofing industry through research, education, technology and charitable programs. It was developed by forward thinking leaders in the early to mid 90s who felt there was a need to fund further developments in the roofing industry.  

“At this point, we've handed out almost $900,000 in scholarships to over 130 students to the Melvin Kruger Endowment Scholarship Fund. We've allocated almost $6 million overall in projects that support our mission,” said Kyle.  

Rod Petrick is a member of the Canadian Roofing Contractors Association (CRCA), NRCA and the Roofing Alliance, and was instrumental in launching the CRCA foundation. The idea for the foundation came from a past presidents' dinner put together by CRCA past president George Patterson. The group decided that more could be done by the CRCA to support the growth of the industry.  

“Every year we have at least $20,000 worth of scholarships that are awarded. And I don't know if it's unique to CRCA, but ours are a four-year renewable scholarship. So as long as you keep your GPA up to our criteria, that scholarship will renew for four years,” said Rod.  

Mike Silvers is one of the founding members of the Florida Association of Roofing Professionals (FRSA) Foundation which started in 1982 and is focused on education and research. The FRSA frequently hosts seminars, both live and online, and also has programs focused on career outreach for young people interested in joining the roofing and construction industry. 

“We have been doing what they call The Summit, which is a weekend with young folks who are interested in the construction industry. [At the Summit] we spend two days introducing the roofing industry and we provide some hands-on roofing activities. It's a great program, we've seen a lot of interest from the young people involved who had no idea that they might have an interest in the roofing industry,” said Mike. 

The FRSA Foundation also provides scholarships, this year giving a total of 15 scholarships totaling to $30,000. 

Read, Listen or Watch the full Coffee Conversation to learn more about these amazing foundations and how you can support them.