Product Spotlight

Supporting The Future - Skills USA

CCI Group has always strived to recruit talent for our industry. Occasionally that talent comes to us fresh from school with a true desire to learn the casework business from the ground up. These are usually the young people who developed this desire early in life from a family member or a school shop teacher. These are the gems we all look for, the ones we can polish to shine brightly in our organizations.

We are fortunate that the Texas chapter of AWI (TAWI) is also a firm believer in encouraging the younger generation to get involved in our industry. As the 2015 president of TAWI, it was recently my pleasure to see firsthand how TAWI uses its money and volunteers its time to support the future employees of the casework industry.

TAWI met in Corpus Christi, Texas, the last week of March in support of the rising talent in our industry. This is the 17th consecutive year TAWI has volunteered to help with the Skills USA competition where kids from all across Texas come to compete at the state level in various skill levels including cabinet building, culinary arts, graphic designs, quizzes, and many others.

Members of TAWI hosted the cabinet building competition and arrived a day early at the American Bank Center Convention Hall to set up equipment and prepare the booth for the kids to work efficiently and safely. The evening before the event was spent, as it is each year, judging many projects that were completed during the year leading up to the competition. These projects ranged from outdoor benches to fine furniture such as clocks and dressers. These pictures are just a small sampling of all the great projects submitted this year.

TAWI not only supports Skills USA with its volunteers, but also supports kids financially by providing scholarships for the cabinet building skills winners. In addition, TAWI also reimburses a portion of the first place winner’s travel expenses to the national competition.

By supporting these kids we not only get to see their talent, we also get to see the future of our industry.

James Hodges
CCI Group
Director of Customer Relations and Education
TAWI 2015 president