Mike Bennett
Mike Bennett calls himself “the whatever needs to be done guy.” He unloads trucks, puts steel onto pallets, gives the guys a hand and even sweeps up. He’s just happy to be here. “I used to ride my bike past the shop everyday,” he recalls. “I saw the B&B Welding sign and wondered how I could get in on the inside.”
His chance came when his grandmother spoke to the McCartney’s after church and asked them to give Mike a job and a chance to learn how to weld. The guys back at B&B agreed, and now Mike’s the youngest guy in the shop.
He remembers his first day. “I felt like the new kid all right, “ he says. “I was nervous, so I tried to look tough and just watch what was going on.” Since then, he’s let down his guard. “He’s finding his own here,” says B&B’s Michele Dosch. “After working here a year, he’s part of the team.”
Mike didn’t come here just to push a broom. He’s here to learn. “I’ve always wanted to be a welder,” he says. “Once a welder, you’re always a welder. And you can always find work. Unless they bring in some robots,” he laughs.
Mike’s goal: pass one weld test at a time. “I don’t want to rush it,” he says. “I want to learn things properly.” To date, Mike’s passed his fillet welt test, groove weld test, flux core weld test.
He had some help along the way. Sam and Sean have given Mike a helping hand. “They let me watch them and learn,” says Mike. “And they stand by my side and help me learn.”
“Welding’s a lot harder than it looks,” says Mike. “You’ve got to stay calm and steady. The worst thing you can do is get mad— you’ll just mess up.”
“Mostly, though, you’ve got to keep on trying,” says Mike. Which is exactly what he does. You can find him at the shop early, practicing on the welding machine, making sure his welds penetrate the steel, making sure there’s no slag so the weld doesn’t break apart.
What we admire the most about Mike is his work ethic. Every morning he rides his bike several miles to work. You may see him on a freezing winter morning, pedaling through the darkness, across the ice, a man determined to get ahead in life. Or you may see him after work, pedaling through the hot humid summer air, sweaty and tired, but happy to be part of the B&B family.
“I like hanging around with everybody,” says Mike. “You even get paid to go out fishing here. Last time out, I caught two rockfish.”
updated 2009
