91视频

A Portland woman who mentors girls in the trades was honored with a laudatory video profile and a surprise gift from TV personality Mike Rowe.

Katie Hughes, founder of the Girls Build summer camp, is the subject of an of Rowe’s new online show for Facebook, 鈥淩eturning the Favor.鈥�

Rowe is perhaps best known for his Discovery Channel show 鈥�Dirty Jobs,鈥� which showcased unique and untidy blue collar positions. In his new program, Rowe profiles 鈥渄o-gooders,鈥� or people who are, per the show’s voiceover narration, 鈥渟lightly better than us, doing nice things for their community in a completely selfless way.鈥�

鈥淲e find ’em, we meet ’em and then we surprise ’em,鈥� Rowe says.

In Hughes’ case, Rowe and his crew surprised her at the end of the episode with an 8-foot-wide, 20-foot-long trailer tricked-out so Hughes can bring Girls Build programs to children outside the area. Rowe’s crew had the trailer customized by Ryan Donato and Jeremy Killian of tiny house manufacturer Tiny Innovations. They gave it Husky cabinets, workbenches, saw tables and an extension cord reel, along with 50 kid-size tool belts and other features.

Hughes said she’d been asked by a producer to fill out a list of materials the camp needed. Not taking it seriously, she drew up a 鈥渄ream list,鈥� containing almost everything she could think to ask for. And almost everything was in the trailer, she said.

鈥淚t was surreal,鈥� she told the 91视频. 鈥淭o have someone pick us out and say, we value what you’re doing and we want to help you succeed. It was pretty special.鈥�

The show’s producers arranged for 10 of Hughes’ family members to join in the surprise, and had a plaque made commemorating her late father, James, to be added to one of the trailer workbenches. Rowe’s foundation, mikeroweWORKS, even donated $10,000.

鈥淥h, stop it,鈥� a tearful Hughes said as she was surprised by Rowe with a huge check.

Earlier in the video, Hughes describes how her father died shortly before her birth in 1980, leaving her and her two sisters with a shed full of tools, but a huge hole in their lives. She credits the loss with giving them the drive to be self-sufficient, and her mother with raising her to tackle life’s challenges with exuberance.

鈥淚’m not afraid to open things up,鈥� she said.

The summer camps Hughes holds in Portland and Southern Oregon give day-campers an overview of 10 skilled trades over the course of two weeks on a picturesque green at the University of Portland. It’s grown fast in only a few years, to seven paid staff members today.

Hughes has mentored kids in the building trades at Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. and the ACE Academy trades-focused charter school. She still teaches for OTI once per week and hopes to soon teach building courses for young women in correctional facilities.

If Hughes seems cool in the show in the presence of a celebrity like Rowe, it was natural. She admits not knowing who he was until about four hours into the interview.

She wasn’t sure why others were acting strange around him, but was relieved that he turned out to be 鈥渧ery relaxed and a good interviewer.鈥�

鈥淚 thought he was a very kind man,鈥� she said.