TOPSHAM

Elementary school students at an extended school year program at Mt. Ararat Middle

School got a special treat Wednesday thanks to a local construction company.

Teachers said they would have been happy had Crooker Construction just brought a dump truck to their school. But when Justin Johnson, a project manager for the Topsham-based company realized they were the only guest invited that day, he got on the phone.

Within a couple hours he pulled together three more pieces of machinery to show students.

Workers brought a ramp with stairs from a job site 50 miles away to make sure the three students in wheelchairs could get close to the dump truck as well.

Robin Monahan runs the six-week school program with Carlie Lochner and Barbara Ticcirillo, helping students keep up with skills learned during the school year.

The women try to have two or three guests to visit with students, which can be easier on them than taking field trips because there is less transition. They’ve had fire trucks, ambulances and police come, and on Tuesday someone from Coastal Humane Society visited.

“Community Helpers is the theme this week, and so basically we’re trying to get community helpers here to show kids who else is in the community,” Monahan said.

One of the entities they contacted was Crooker. The kids see Crooker employees working on the roads all the time, she said. She called to see if the company would be interested in coming over and showing the kids a really cool piece of equipment.

“Not only did they say yes, but they were really excited about this for this kids,” Monahan said before the unveiling. “They’re going above and beyond to make this special for these kids. It’s a great community event and could be a start to a great community partnership.”

“They’ve really gone above and beyond to accommodate our students,” said Lochner.

Johnson was down on his knees shaking hands with students and even found a little hard hat for a little girl when he learned it was her birthday. After students crawled one-by-one into the cab of the shiny yellow dump truck, a member of Crooker did a demonstration with the boom truck.

Crooker wants to get kids excited about the construction industry, which is more white collar and less “grimy” than it once was, Johnson said. He pointed to the sophistication and engineering just behind the expensive material handler in the parking lot, commonly known as a bucket loader.

“I’m excited about it,” Johnson said.“We just need to get younger kids excited about it and I think by the time they get to high school, it’s almost too late in a lot of ways.

“We need talented people,” he said. “We need educated people. We don’t let just anybody run this gear.”

Johnson said the company is open to doing these kind of events for schools and even to having students come to headquarters on a field trip. He expects the company will be promoting careers in the construction industry, particularly at the junior high school level.

“Part of that is just getting the name out there to let people know — hey, this is another industry. It’s not just banking, it’s not just a call center. There’s good paying jobs here,” he said.

dmoore@timesrecord.com