Judaline Cassidy, the chief visionary officer of Tools & Tiaras Inc., is attempting to do something about the lack of women in the HVAC industry’s workforce. It is reported that women make up only 1.7% of the HVAC industry’s workforce. Tools & Tiaras is an organization that aims to advance the interest of young girls and women who have interest in non-traditional careers that are typically made up of men such as mechanical, industrial, technical, and trades.
The organization offers monthly workshops and summer camps where girls are able to learn from skilled tradeswomen and build their self-esteem in order to pursue a nontraditional career path. During the recent event they held, each girl was given a chance to build their own “Mighty Minka,” which is the organization’s Strong-Willed Warrior, that represents the core of Tools & Tiaras message, which is, “Where strong girls are forged.”
Cassidy envisioned Mighty Minka as a way to introduce the girls to copper pipe plumbing. She added that, “I built the prototype and she was more amazing than I imagined! She’s the perfect embodiment of what we do at T&T and what International Day of the Girl is all about. I knew I had to make this happen. But copper fittings are expensive, especially for a grassroots nonprofit like us.”
After Ridgid supplied the new copper pipe press tool all that was left were copper fittings. Luckily, Viega stepped up and provided Tools & Tiaras with what they needed. Tricia Musgrave, Director, customer success and training at Viega stated, “Being able to support an event like this means there will be more skilled tradespeople working in this industry in the future, Teaching girls how to use press technology is a great way to show them what is possible as a career path and how easy it is to learn how to press. The confidence they build gets them excited about learning more. Tools & Tiaras is absolutely right — jobs don’t have a gender, and we were thrilled to be involved.”
Cassidy concluded with a statement in regard to Viega stepping up saying, “We were so excited! It’s invaluable support like this that helps us do what we do and keep our summer camps and monthly workshops free to every interested girl. We’re grateful to have friends like Viega who choose to join our mission of showing girls that ‘jobs don’t have genders,’”
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