[October 2008]

Bobby Towe is just one of the hundreds of people trying to get back on their feet after Mid-South Electronics closed its Jackson County plant in 2006.

But he is also one of the hundreds of people whose post-layoff transition into new jobs or career training was made much smoother thanks to support obtained through the Daniel Boone Community Action Agency’s (Daniel Boone CAA) JobSight workforce centers in Clay and Jackson counties.

Towe, a McKee resident, attends Somerset Community College in London, where he is training to become a welder. As a small part of his personal recovery, Towe used his new skills to weld together a steel sculpture of a wasp firing a bow and arrow.

Towe says he was “shocked” when his sculpture took first place in a statewide contest held this March in Louisville. SkillsUSA, a national nonprofit organization that promotes vocational education for high school and college students, hosted that contest.

Towe admits the award-winning sculpture is an odd one. A cold metallic gleam rests uneasily on something that looks organic and ready to spring into motion, dangerous but with a hint of whimsy. You want to touch it, to debate the meaning and intent of the sinister and complicated piece.

And that is exactly the reaction Towe says he set out to evoke with the sculpture.

“It’s about building something that’s so outrageous it gets everybody’s attention,” Towe says, explaining his philosophy of art.

The fact the mind that formed this strange metallic vision does not belong to an academic or professional artist, but a 51-year-old former warehouseman, is remarkable enough.

But the sculpture is also a symbol showing how Towe and hundreds of other former Mid-South workers have responded to a major personal setback and a changing economy by finding ways to adjust and do something meaningful and rewarding with their lives.

Towe—who worked at Mid-South for 12 years—and the others found the financial assistance they needed to train for a new career from the federal Trade Act program for displaced workers.

Trade Act services are administered in 23 eastern Kentucky counties by the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP), and delivered in Clay and Jackson counties through JobSight workforce centers operated by Daniel Boone CAA.

According to the latest figures from EKCEP, JobSight has served 257 people after the Mid-South layoffs, helping 47 get new jobs, 25 search for jobs, 32 meet remedial requirements like getting a GED, and 111 go back to school to train for new careers.

During workshops hosted by JobSight staff following the layoff, Towe learned that because the plant shifted its operations overseas, he was eligible for assistance through the Trade Act to help with his retraining.

He began working with Alesia Brewer, a career adviser at the Jackson County JobSight office, to plan his new life.

The pair researched careers, and Towe chose welding because of that profession’s good earning potential.

“And I’ve always been a hands-on type of guy. I love building stuff,” he says.

Towe entered college in January 2007. His last major educational venture was earning his GED while serving in the Army in the 1980s, so attending community college with people who were mostly younger than him presented some challenges.

“I don’t know who was more shocked, me or the younger guys,” Towe says. “I’ve even been mistaken for a professor on occasion.”

As he trains, Trade Act funding is covering costs associated with Towe’s tuition, his books, and expensive computer programs he needs for his classes. That money, Unemployment Insurance, and student loans have kept him afloat as he builds a new life for himself.

The classes are challenging, he says, but he has applied himself and even made the dean’s list during his first semester. He hopes to finish his associate’s degree in combination welding before the end of the year.

Towe says he entered the SkillsUSA competition earlier this year simply to “have something fun to do” as he pursued his welding training.

His newfound skills quickly came into play. Towe designed the sculpture using a computer program. He then built an outline for it and constructed it both at home and at the college’s workshop using the welding techniques he had learned.

Towe says he was encouraged by the fact that those efforts earned him a first-place prize in the statewide contest. After seeing the sculpture, one of the judges told him “do more,” he says.

He just might. While he does not expect to earn a living at metal sculpture, Towe says he would like to do more works on the side “once I get out of school and get myself straightened out.”

The more immediate plan, Towe says, is to attempt to use his welding degree to get a job on a construction crew after college.

Brewer says she will not be surprised when Towe succeeds at whatever he pursues.

“He’s always been positive,” she said. “His grades are good.”

He now has hope for the future, and Towe admits that without JobSight and Daniel Boone CAA, his prospects would have been much bleaker.

“If it wasn’t for them, none of this would have been possible,” he says.

Towe strongly encourages other people in situations like his to go to their local JobSight workforce center to see what retraining options are available to them.

“If I had my way, I’d encourage everybody who gets the chance to do this,” Towe says. “Welding may not be for them, but there are other things out there. It’s not easy, but do it.”

For more information on the Trade Act and other services offered through the JobSight network, contact Alesia Brewer in Jackson County at 606-364-4484, or Mona Whitaker in Clay County at 606-598-5127.