With their second student built house ready for sale, the St. Mary’s County Building Trades Foundation has a lot of visible accomplishments. The organization, which had been dormant for ten years, was reconstituted two years ago under the leadership OF Jim Baycot, president of Brooks Run Builders.
Now the organization has a state award to show off. The organization was recently selected to receive the 2013 Career and Technology Education (CTE) Outstanding Secondary Business Partnership Award of Excellence by the Maryland State Department of Education. The award was presented at a ceremony April 23rd at the Sheraton Baltimore City Center Hotel in downtown Baltimore. School Superintendent Dr. Michael Martirano was on hand for the ceremony
The St. Mary’s County Board of Education honored the foundation at their April 25 meeting. On hand to accept the award were Baycot, foundation Vice President Adam Stiffler of Meadow Valley Carpentry, and Forrest Career and Technology center Plumbing/HVAC Instructor Harold Garrison. Stiffler was a student in the tech center program’s last year before it went in hiatus.
Tech Center Principal Theo Cramer was also in attendance for the board presentation.
Board of Education President Dr. Sal Raspa praised Baycot for his fortitude. “You excited many of us” he said about Baycot’s persistence in resurrecting the foundation. “You made everything flow and it all came together,” Raspa said.
The second home that is ready for purchase is on Miss Bessie Lane in Leonardtown. Proceeds from the sale of the houses are plowed back into the program which trains young people for the local building trade industry.
