New Brighton, Minn. (Dec. 1, 2018) — It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas — especially at the Local 633 JATC (Joint Apprenticeship Training Center) where future cement masons and plasterers are honing their skills in New Brighton. For the seventh consecutive year, the apprentices of Cement Masons, Plasterers & Shophands Local 633 have built a Christmas exhibit replicating areas of a small city in their warehouse-sized work area . Last year’s exhibit featured an ice skating rink and a gigantic statue of the Stanley Cup in one corner along with a replica of the Vince Lombardi Trophy in the other to salute Super Bowl LII — all done with colored concrete. This year’s exhibit features a small house built by the plasterers of Local 265, a mini golf course and a roundabout built by the cements masons of Local 633. All of the structures are tinted and toned with the colors and shades of the Holiday Season.
Not only does the exhibit show the artistic nature of what can be done with concrete and plaster, but it has an educational function as well. The apprentices get practical hands on training by doing it. “We are trying to replicate everything MnDOT will prescribe as paving work you’d see in the metro area such as the four types of curbs — B curb, D curb, S curb and V curb — plus the water drains. This year we decided to put a golf putting green in the B curb!” explained Brian Farmer, Apprenticeship Coordinator of Local 633 Journeyman and Apprentice JATC Training Center. “Everything we are doing here has a real world application.”
The exhibit will be open to the public for two days, Monday Dec. 3 and Tuesday Dec. 4, from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Anyone who wants to come is asked to bring or drop-off a non-perishable food item (such as canned soup and vegetables, pasta, etc.) for Food Group, a local food shelf, from New Hope.
