The 2:10 Foundation

Supporting and Celebrating the Trades

In 1979, Holly S. Hill was a teen living in northern New Hampshire with her parents and five siblings. Hollys father, Fred, owned a local business with his brother, Bob, that provided heating fuels, furnace installations, plumbing, and other services. As a child, Holly admired her fathers ability to fix just about anything, and she often accompanied him when he was out on a call. Today, she reflects gratefully on how her father made sure she knew how to hammer a nail, tighten a screw, and change a tire.

Fred, his sister, and younger brother worked alongside their father on their dairy farm after their mother died from tuberculosis. Though they were all under the age of seven, they all performed their chores every day before school. Despite facing many hardships, each child grew up to be self-supporting and financially successful with an unwavering work ethic.

One night during her senior year of high school, Hollys father said to her, You have to have a trade, something to fall back on. This was his complete lecture on education. Holly asked if she could go to cosmetology school. Always a man of few words, he replied, Thats a trade. Ill pay for that. At eighteen, Holly graduated from cosmetology school and began working at a busy, local salon. It was not long before she had a regular clientele and a steady income. Years later, Holly moved to Georgia and eventually went on to earn an associates degree and a bachelors degree. Today, Holly owns and manages a local business with her husband.

Over the decades following that conversation with her father, Holly noticed a significant decline in workers practicing the trades the way her father and uncle had done. It seemed fewer and fewer skilled workers were seeking training in the fields of plumbing, welding, electrical, machinery operation and the like. She also noticed some students struggling to complete degrees in majors they didnt necessarily enjoy. Others seemed to graduate with degrees that didnt lead to a lot of job opportunities. How could the skills that provided so much security and pride for her family (and helped so many in their small community) have fallen off the radar of viable career options?

Mike Rowe, a television personality who is working to help bring attention to the trades, often shares that there are 5.6 million jobs in the United States today that are unfilled despite there being six million unemployed people. This is because people are not acquiring the necessary training to do them. The phrase skills gap is getting a lot of buzz these days, and its true.

In 2014, Holly founded the 2:10 Foundation to support and celebrate the trades. The 2:10 Foundation strives to provide scholarship opportunities to those students who have a desire to work in the trades. To find out if your education is eligible for a scholarship, visit The210Foundation.com. You may be able to finish and get to work sooner than you think! The 2:10 Foundation is a recognized 501c3 non-profit organization. Donations are tax deductible.