Two Nisqually Valley high school graduates didn’t take long to find their first post-graduation opportunity. Rainier High School graduate Jacob “Buggy” Borman and Yelm High School graduate Darin Stone recently joined the Keystone Masonry team as bricklayer apprentices in Yelm.
As members of the Bricklayers Local 1 WA-AK apprenticeship program, they will learn the masonry trade through on-job training, classroom and workshop education while earning income and benefits. The apprenticeship runs for four years, but apprentices at Keystone Masonry often become professional before their time is up.
Borman grew up around the masonry trade as his father, Jake, also works at Keystone Masonry, and his great-uncle, Steve, founded the company and has nearly five decades of experience. He recalls being a child and helping his family with side projects. His father would lay the stones, and he would be “mixing the mud for him and pushing around the blocks.”
“My dad called me up to help them with labor work and moving stuff around. I took an interest in this as a career when I was 16. I like that my family is already in it,” Borman said. “I’m able to pursue this for the next four years, journey out, and, then, after that, I can really decide if I want to continue doing it for the rest of my life. If I really keep enjoying it, I’ll just keep going at it.”
Stone didn’t have the same exposure to the trade as Borman, but he discovered masonry through a mutual source: Steve Borman. Stone has worked for the company’s founder for three months around his house doing yard work and other projects, and Steve Borman asked him about the trade.
“I was working at his house, and he called me in for lunch. We were eating Subway, and he started talking to me about it and asked me if I was interested in the trade,” Stone said. “I said I didn’t really know anything about the trade. He said, ‘Well, we all start somewhere. I didn’t know anything about it when I first started.’ What really drew me in was he said that it was kind of like an art when you get good at it, and I liked that aspect of it.”
Both students are eager to get started with their apprenticeship and learn how to master their crafts.
“I’m looking forward to learning everything about the trade, and I want to learn how to get really good at it and really precise so I can do some pretty unique stuff,” Jacob Borman said.
Steve Borman has always had an interest in hiring young people since opening up his business in 1985. He said that while graduating from college benefitted him, he believes the hands-on experience that an apprenticeship provides is unmatched.
“There’s a future in this for somebody if they want to do it. Working for a good union wage helps if you want to raise a family,” he said. “We need more young people in the masonry industry. We’ve got a lot of work right now, so I’d like to get a bunch of young, high school graduates interested in going into the trades.”
Steve Borman added that apprentices may start out cutting units, bricks and blocks or “pulling the other end of the tape for the foreman” while learning about everything that goes on at a job site.
Jacob Borman and Stone said they appreciate the ability to have an apprenticeship lined up for them right after they graduate from high school.
“It’s amazing having an opportunity like this, and it pays for my future, which I wanted to do as soon as I could,” Jacob Borman said.
“I was super stoked. I remember going home to my parents and telling them about it, and they were stoked for me. I know it’s hard work, but I’m ready for it. I couldn’t be more happy to have this opportunity,” Stone added.
To learn more about Keystone Masonry, 503 First St. S., Suite No. 6, in Yelm, visit https://keystonemasonry.biz/.
