Attend any MLB game or NASCAR event nowadays and you might notice a big graphic of a seafoam blue submarine plastered on an outfield wall or on the hood of a Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing car.

That’s the work of BuildSubmarines.com, a collaborative effort from the U.S. Navy and BlueForge Alliance, a not-for-profit organization contracted with the Navy to help encourage interest in the maritime manufacturing sector.

“They’re really getting the word out. It’s everywhere now,” said Steve Dobos, director of Cameron, Texas-based Butler Weldments Corp., which has worked with the Navy since 1991. “Have you ever seen submarine commercial before or even known there was a submarine industrial base?”

Dobos, who also serves as a board member to Fabricators and Manufacturers Association (FMA) as well as its Nuts, Bolts, & Thingamajigs (NBT) foundation, played an integral role in connecting BlueForge Alliance’s and NBT’s shared mission of developing the next generation of skilled workers.

“You have to get people excited. That’s the key,” he added.

The result of that connection? The first-ever Building Giants Submarine Manufacturing Camp, which was held July 8-19 in Mansfield, Ohio, as part of the NBT summer camp series.

The curriculum included visiting three local manufacturing companies that supply the submarine sector (Gorman-Rupp, Stoneridge Inc., and Warren Rupp), designing and plasma-cutting flowers and planes out of sheet metal at the Mansfield Senior High School’s fabrication lab, and building small remote-controlled submersibles.

“I had so many parents call asking, 'So are you guys are going to build submarines?'” said Nikia Fletcher, director of the Building Giants camp and Mansfield City Schools career tech program. “That's not quite what we want to do. We want to show them the techniques so that they can understand what goes into building a submarine. That's why we wanted to do the submersibles.”

The submersibles project was the grand finale of the two-week camp.

During the last day, students teamed up to show off how they engineered each submersible at Malabar Intermediate School’s pool. While one student operated the remote control, another student guided the mechanism in the pool.

“We spent about a week working on that,” said eighth grader Liam McCumiskey. “It was a cool experience, trying new things.”

Each device was designed using PVC pipe, circuit wire, toggles, propellers, and foam noodles—all of which was confusing to the campers when they initially unboxed the project on Day 1.

“At first they were a little intimidated,” Fletcher said.

But visits to the three manufacturing facilities that help feed the submarine sector put it all in perspective.

“They could see it all on kind of a larger scale,” Fletcher said. “Honestly, if it wasn’t for those visits, I don’t know if we would've gotten them to the comfortable place they are today. They needed to see the big picture first and then relate it to what they were doing here so that it made sense to them.

“I want our students to understand that it's not just about putting two pieces of steel together. It's about taking that and then making it into a career.”

Having the next generation of workers understand the importance of a career in manufacturing is particularly vital to Mansfield and how engrained the industry is in the area. Fletcher, a Mansfield native, said the community has taken thorough steps to maintain its rich heritage and push new industry.

“We’ve done a lot with economic development,” she said. “Our community has really pulled together. The colleges, our workforce development, our strong Richland County Foundation, they’ve all generated lots of interest in the area through workforce development.”

And that interest seemed to resonate with the kids at the Building Giants camp, something that stood out to Dobos.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” he said about attending the camp. “But I’m more than excited at seeing these kids and how engaged they are. They were enthusiastic about what they’re doing here and willing to share.”

The two weeks gave the campers a lot to consider about future opportunities in the industry, whether it’s a path to building submarines or something else.

“If they had a similar program next year, I would consider doing it. I wasn’t fully aware of just how many jobs there are actually in manufacturing,” McCumiskey said while looking around high school’s fabrication lab. “There are a lot of small processes in here that I didn’t really think about before.”

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