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CARE donates carpentry tools to NMTI
The Northern Marianas Trades Institute’s Construction Trades Program recently received a sizeable donation of tools from CARE CNMI. (Contributed Photo)
The Northern Marianas Trades Institute’s Construction Trades Program recently received a sizeable donation of tools.
The large load of carpentry tools, along with two used pickup trucks, were donated by CARE CNMI and was received earlier this week.
The carpentry tools were used by Mennonite Disaster Service, which is composed of volunteers from the U.S. mainland who came in as part of the post-Typhoon Soudelor recovery efforts and are now transitioning back home.
CARE’s donation is welcome news to NMTI as it helps the Construction Trades Program in its effort at providing trainees with equipment students need to succeed in their career endeavors.
With its learning-by-doing approach, NMTI’s Construction Trades Program is a bit more expensive to run. Running trades classes is somewhat different from a regular academic standpoint in that it is a bit more expensive to conduct, according to Trades chair Brian Torres.
NMTI chief executive officer Agnes McPhetres was thankful for the donation. “We are truly blessed to have groups that care about the wellbeing of our community. CARE’s contribution is testament that there are many of our people out there that truly believe that we are an institution worth investing in. My colleagues cannot thank CARE enough as their donation helps alleviate some of the current need for tools.
McPhetres wished the Mennonites farewell and thanked them for coming to the CNMI’s aid during a time of mass devastation.
CARE director Maxine Laszlo is excited that the tools will ultimately help us build a larger local workforce of construction laborers.
“The major challenge most families faced after Soudelor was finding an affordable, reliable contractor to do repairs on their homes. Even families who had funds and wanted to rebuild their homes did not have access to labor or often experienced contractor fraud. By continuing to invest in training our local workforce, we will be better prepared as a community to respond to our needs after disaster,” she said. (PR)
