Shelly Higgins Makes a Difference With Let’s Build Construction Camp for Girls

By Anna Lockhart. 

After rounding up sponsors, volunteers and mentors for the program, the Let’s Build camp is returning for their second year!  

Shelly Higgins, the architectural and national accounts director at S-5!, has dedicated her time and resources to the construction industry and her peers. As an active member of many associations and councils, Shelly has a special place in her heart for the future of the construction industry and supporting trade schools.  

She has supported her own local community by helping organize and run the Let’s Build Construction Camp for Girls, a five-day summer camp designed for young girls between the ages of 12 and 16 to learn the construction trade. This camp gives them the opportunity and encouragement to learn about construction from hands-on experience through a series of projects, field trips and mentorships. Shelly has made an impact on the young girls in Northeastern Ohio by promoting and organizing such an amazing event for the leaders of the next generation. Thanks to her hard work finding volunteers, mentors and sponsors for the camp, these young girls have the chance to learn about the endless career opportunities that exist in the construction industry.  

“I feel so blessed to be able to do this and my thing is, you hear everybody saying you know we need trade schools. I can't complain about something unless I'm willing to do something about it. So that's why I said I'm doing this. This is something in my heart, my passion,” Shelly shared. “I'm doing this because I believe in encouraging girls to get into a field that I've told them, I don't care. If you want to do marketing, you want to work in an office. There are there are positions in the industry for you, and if you aren't, you don't want to go to college, and you're not wired for that then maybe you want to work with your hands. Great. You can make a very good living in the trades.”  

Shelly’s hard work and vision for these young girls doesn’t just stop at the final day of the program either. “We are here, not just as the camp, but we are here as an industry and if there's something that you think you want to do. I want to encourage them to join on. Give us a call if this is what you think you want to do.” She continued, “If it's something that you're going to go to college for or you're going to go to into a program, call us. I want to set you up with somebody in the industry that can mentor you and you can shadow and see if this is what you really, really want to do.” 

Thanks to the hard work of people like Shelly and the camp sponsors like S-5!, young girls in Northeastern Ohio will have an opportunity to return this June for the camp’s second year!