ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Sira Powell enjoys working with tools to bring a concept to life.
That could be the walkway she’s building with her father in their backyard, or the copper-and-sheet-metal lamp she’s been assembling at the Heavy Metal Summer Experience over the past two weeks.
“Me doing it myself, that’s just really cool,” said Sira, a 16-year-old rising junior at Freedom High School and a building trades student at Bethlehem Area Vocational-Technical School.
The Heavy Metal Summer Experience is a camp offered at partner sites throughout the country to expose high schoolers and recent graduates to union trade jobs.
“It’s just an amazing hands-on experience."Sira Powell, camper and rising Freedom High School junior
In the Lehigh Valley, the camp is offered by the mechanical contractor H.T. Lyons at its Allentown shop.
“It’s just an amazing hands-on experience,” said Sira, one of the campers.
“There’s so many opportunities to ask questions and just have people who know what they're talking about teach you how to do things you’ve never seen before," she said.
The campers have learned about sheet metal, piping, plumbing and basic electrical work. They’ve watched demonstrations and gotten to practice skills themselves, putting their knowledge to the test as they work on a lamp project.
The teens also received free safety glasses, hand tools and Red Wing boots. The camp is free to students, too.
About 50 Lehigh Valley teens applied for the Heavy Metal Summer Experience, but only 14 were chosen to participate in the 10-day camp, which was open to ages 15 to 19.
Learning about trade unions
Throughout the camp, teens went on field trips, such as to the Sheet Metal Workers’ Training Center for Local Union 19 in Hamburg, Berks County, and the Steamfitters’ Training Center for United Association Local 420 in Philadelphia.
Plumbers from the United Association Local Union 690 in Philadelphia also came to speak with the teens on site at H.T. Lyons.
Kate Dimaio, organizational development manager at H.T. Lyons and a coordinator for the camp, said the union trades are an “amazing industry” for youth to enter.
With an aging workforce, new workers are needed, as well, she said.
Theaverage growth ratefor plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters from 2023 to 2033 is projected at 6%, which is higher than average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
And the pay is a draw, too.
“It’s very nicely paid as long as you go through all the training and continue getting certifications,” Dimaio said.
“Non-union workers do not get paid like they do in the unions,” Dimaio said. “But see, the training and the skill level warrants a higher pay scale, as well. They are quality craftspeople.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters was $62,970 in 2024. That average includes both union and non-union workers.
As of 2024, full-time, non-union workers’ median weekly salary was only 85% of that for union workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That’s a $1,138 weekly paycheck for non-union workers compared with $1,337 for union workers.
That statistic encompasses all fields and is not specific to the trades.
According to the Heavy Metal Summer Experience, a nonprofit organization founded by contractors and industry leaders, the annual earning potential for union trade jobs sits at $75,000 to $125,000.
Variety of work in the trades
H.T. Lyons Sheet Metal Logistics Supervisor Russel Bass, who’s also a camp mentor, said there’s a variety of available work within a given trade, too, giving students lots of career options.
When it comes to sheet metal work, tradespeople could be based in a shop or out in the field. They could do welding, computer-aided design or air balancing, which makes sure air is properly distributed throughout heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.
Bass has spent his career working on computers to implement software and develop a fabrication process, he said.
But for students who don’t go into the trades, the skills they learn at the Heavy Metal camp still are valuable for maintaining a home, he said.
“You don’t have to pay people to do [work], you can possibly do it for yourself, which can save you a lot of money,” Bass said.
Camper Garrett Riffert, a rising junior at Nazareth Area High School, said he’s still deciding whether he’ll go into the trades or attend college to study engineering.
Garrett, 16, said the Heavy Metal Summer Experience showed him new potential job opportunities.
“I think it’s really cool, some of the stuff that they do."Garrett Riffert, camper and a rising Nazareth Area High School junior
Even though Garrett studies HVAC and plumbing at the Career Institute of Technology, the summer camp exposed him to trade unions for the first time, he said.
“The fact that I get to meet union people and some of the [H.T. Lyons workers] and hear [about] their job experience and some of the different paths I can follow through, is just really eye-opening and more than CIT can offer,” he said.
Garrett said he particularly liked visiting the Steamfitters Training Center.
“I think it’s really cool, some of the stuff that they do,” he said.
Joseph Cuzzolino, a rising Bangor Area High School junior, said he also liked visiting the Steamfitters Training Center.
Additionally, Joseph,15, liked working on the lamp project, which involved folding and rolling sheet metal, as well as cutting and soldering copper pipe.
New skills, training for all levels
Also an HVAC and plumbing CIT student, Joseph said he already was familiar with many of the skills taught at the camp.
But one new experience was using an oxy-acetylene torch to cut through a steel pipe.
“You just have to wait until the metal heats up and then it shoots right through, and you can carve out what you want to,” he said.
“It was cool. We had to put all our welding gear on, big gloves, too, [and] masks.”
Austen Kernechel, a rising Emmaus High School junior, also said he enjoyed using the oxy-acetylene torch. He carved his initials into a pipe with it.
Austen, 15, said he plans to become a pipefitter, like his father.
Though he’s taken a home maintenance class at Emmaus to learn carpentry and other skills, Austin hasn’t attended a vocational-technical school.
That made him fear he didn’t have enough experience for the camp. But that fear turned out to be unjustified, thanks to the camps’ mentors, he said.
“They help with everything,” Austin said. “They’ll do stuff and give us examples [of] how they would do it on the job.
“I was a little nervous to come here because I didn’t know how to do anything, but they help with everything, so it’s easy.”
H.T. Lyons will assess the success of the camp, which ended Friday, before deciding whether to offer it again next summer, its coordinator said.
Though early assessments and the demand from applicants indicate it will likely continue.
