Once again, our HBAL staff coordinated a successful Home & Garden Show, drawing attendance from Lincoln and surrounding communities. We are fortunate to have such a well run event that provides HBAL members the opportunity to interact with the public one-on-one to assist them with their upcoming projects. The Home & Garden Show also features the annual High School Residential Design Contests. Students’ designs are judged and then on display during the Show. We will honor the winners of this contest at the Tribute to Youth meeting in April.

For many years, the Home & Garden Show also featured an “If You Could Build a House” contest for elementary students. The project challenged students to draw their “dream house.” HBAL recently received a letter from a former participant highlighting how this contest impacted her career path and influenced her decision to go into engineering. Breanna Smith, who was recognized in 2009, received her Master of Architectural Engineering degree and is now working as an electrical engineer. Her mom expressed her gratitude, saying “You influence more young minds than you probably will ever know.” Read the full story on page 20.

It is important that we continue our outreach into the schools to let students and parents know about the many jobs available in our industry. If an opportunity arises to help a student with a school job shadow assignment, or if you would be interested in helping with a sponsorship for our upcoming Construction Career Day please do so. You never know what might spark someone’s interest in pursuing a career in our industry.