By David Freeze

For the Salisbury Post

SALISBURY — Masonry student EmmaGrace Amos decided that her church needed a fire pit. For hot dog and marshmallow roasts, and even warming a few doughnuts, groups at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church had built a temporary pit.

Amos, a seventh-generation church member, wanted to earn the highest award in Girl Scouting by doing something sustainable with lasting impact on the Scouts. She organized Masonry for Girls, a program held last Saturday, and invited three other troops to join in.

A total of 18 Brownies and Girl Scouts, ages 7 to 16, participated along with at least seven troop leaders.

Amos wanted the church youth and the church community, along with her own Troop 743, to have forever use of the pit.

A rising senior at Carson High School, Amos contacted teachers Darren Yow and Phil Faggart and asked them to participate. She got Kent Huntley from Huntley Brothers Masonry and Ryan Shaver, workforce development and training coordinator for the North Carolina Masonry Contractors Association, to join in and the church to donate the brick.

The girls watched the experts pour the footings and learned why they are needed. Then they moved on to individual and group instruction in using the masonry tools on hand, including a masonry hammer, brick trowel, gauging trowel, brick jointer, string line, levels, mortar mixer, steel square and block chisel. They practiced laying brick with a practice mortar mix that doesn’t use cement, all in anticipation of actually laying brick for the fire pit.

When Amos wanted to study something different in school, she chose masonry.

“I was the only girl in class,” she said. “None of my friends wanted to take it. The boys have always treated me well. Girls should always consider taking different classes. I also thought about woodworking, another place where there is good career money.”

It’s all about exposing girls to a nontraditional skill, said Shaver.

“These girls have just as much ability as a young man at this age,” he said. “We’ve got to get younger ones interested and find ways to recruit them into our industry. The average age of today’s brick mason is 54 years, and we are going to need 34,000 more masons by 2026. That is 12 percent growth. So it’s events like this where we are investing for young people and trying to engage them early.”

Shaver noted that former West Rowan High School student Ashton White is the first female North Carolina masonry champion. She will compete nationally against other college-level students later this year.

After a hot dog lunch last Saturday, the Girl Scouts put their practice to work. The instructors had completed all but two layers of the fire pit and wanted the girls to place the next row of bricks. The girls lined up on all four sides to trowel the mortar mix into place, then butter the brick with more mortar before getting help on the final placement. Once each girl laid her brick, she left a permanent marker of her participation.

The girls had mortar on their clothes and in their hair.

“This was hands-on, a lot like arts and crafts,” said Lana Bryant. “It is something we can be proud of. I like getting dirty occasionally, and my family already does construction. Getting paid for doing something physical works for me.”

“The best part was trying something new,” said Regan Waller. “I wasn’t sure if this would be fun but it was and I got better today. This is hard work, and I appreciate those who do it.”

Rylie Williams added, “I never thought I would be hearing about masonry, but I am glad I did.”

Emmalyn Sides was especially pleased to practice using the trowel properly. “Getting the mortar in the right place got easier as we practiced,” she said.

All four girls said they will explore the possibility of taking masonry classes. That pleases Kent Huntley, co-owner of Huntley Brothers and president of the North Carolina Masonry Contractors Association.

“My passion is exposing youth to an excellent career choice. I’m a mason, as were my grandfather, father and now all my brothers. My sons, 12 and 16, will also be masons. It’s a source of pride,” Huntley said. “By age 18, these kids could be making $50,000 a year with no college debt, and the sky is the limit after that.

“When we put a new employee to work, we always let them lay a brick on the first day,” Huntley said. “From that point on, they are bricklayers. These girls today will remember where they placed their first brick.”

After the instructors completed the last layer of bricks, Amos had her fire pit. But the rest of the girls had plenty, too.

“It was clear that all the girls had lots of fun, I think way more than most of them expected. All you had to do was watch them smile as they got back into line to lay another brick,” said Amy Waller, the Girl Scout troop leader.

“We take our girls to try something new quite often,” Waller said. “And we are here to support one of our sister Scouts as she goes for the gold award. We teach our girls to do things that aren’t typical.”