By Brandi Thring

For more than three decades, TRU’s School of Trades and Technology and the Canadian Home Builders Association Central Interior (CHBA CI) have worked in partnership to support residential construction. The CHBA CI has cemented this partnership with more than $300,000 in charitable support for TRU, and a new $50,000 endowment that will continue supporting trades students for decades to come.

From left to right: CHBA CI President Chris Crowell, past-president Tom Caine and treasurer Mario Piroddi present a $50,000 cheque to TRU Trades and Technology Dean Baldev Pooni to create an endowment in support of trades students.

Each year, TRU students construct a residential training house in partnership with the association, taking knowledge gained in the classroom and learning to apply it in the real world. It is an award-winning public-private partnership.

“It’s great to get hands-on experience,” says Keegan Fretz, a student from South Kamloops Secondary and first-year foundation carpentry student. “Then you know what you’re doing when you get on a job site.”

CHBA CI, which is celebrating 60 years of local leadership and advocacy in 2025, has provided tools to carpentry students like Fretz for well over 20 years. The value of their support since then totals $313,000. Those tools, along with skills learned working on the training house, ensure TRU’s residential construction trades students enter the industry with the knowledge, experience and tools necessary to succeed.

Recently, CHBA CI established a $50,000 endowment to fund long-term scholarships for trades students who participate in the training house project. The organization is hoping to build the CHBA CI Training House Award endowment to $100,000 so it can support trades students in perpetuity.

“We want to break down barriers that might exist for kids to get into trades,” says CHBA CI President Chris Crowell. “And we also want to reward them for putting their time forward to contribute to this project.”

Instructor has long history with industry non-profit

Carpentry students, under the guidance of instructor Tim Kasten, complete the foundation and framing of the house up to the lock-up stage. Students from other trades programs, such as plumbing, electrical and HVAC, also contribute to the construction. In 2024/25, 84 trade students received on-the job experience at the training house, the most ever.

Once the home is complete, YMCA BC – Kamloops takes ownership and kicks off the Kamloops Y Dream Home Lottery, which raises money in support of local branch’s programs and services.

“It’s going to be a stunning house,” says Kasten, who knows the evolution of the training house project well. He’s been involved almost since the beginning and started buying tickets in hopes of winning the Y Dream Home not long after.

In 1991, he worked on the second training house as an apprentice, developing valuable skills that would propel his career. With a toolkit filled with those skills as well as hard work and determination, he quickly built a successful construction business and found himself hiring young TRU tradespeople to work alongside him.

“At one point, probably my entire crew came from TRU. The advantage they had was that they had built a house. They were used to tools, so I didn’t have to take that first step with them. They were ready to hit the ground running,” says Kasten, adding that he appreciates how CHBA CI and other industry leaders are recognizing the value and importance of skilled trades workers and stepping up to support them.

Early in his career, Kasten joined CHBA CI, an advocate of the residential construction industry, and has been on the board for about 20 years, including two as president. For several years, he oversaw the completion of the training house project as a board member. Then 10 years ago, he sold his business and joined TRU as an instructor, sharing his knowledge with students in the classroom and on site.

In 35 years, Kasten has been involved with the training house from three different angles, each reinforcing just how special he believes the project is.

“Tim taught a lot of the leaders in our building community locally. So, he’s had a huge influence on the construction industry within Kamloops,” says Crowell, “He’s a big reason that this program and this partnership between CHBA CI and TRU is so successful.”