EV Construction hosted more than 175 children and family members on Tuesday, July 29, for its third annual Future Builders event — a unique, interactive experience held at the under-construction Pine Rest Pediatric Center of Behavioral Health in Grand Rapids.
The event welcomed children of EV employees, trade partners, and Pine Rest staff to explore a real construction site and participate in a variety of hands-on building, engineering, and safety-themed stations. The goal: to plant seeds of curiosity and introduce young people to the many career paths within the skilled trades.
“We believe that inspiring future builders begins with exposure — letting kids see, touch, and imagine the world of construction up close,” said Mike Novakoski, CEO of EV Construction. “Future Builders is a fun day for families, but it’s also an important step toward addressing the labor shortage that’s already affecting our industry.”
According to the National Center for Construction Education & Research (NCCER), over 40% of the U.S. construction workforce is expected to retire by 2031. With growing demand for new talent, initiatives like Future Builders play a key role in sparking long-term interest in construction careers.
A Construction Site Turned Hands-On Playground
Participants had the chance to:
- Operate mini excavators and climb inside real construction equipment courtesy of Excel Excavating
- Ride in a scissor lift for a bird’s-eye view of the job site
- Take guided job site tours featuring an interactive scavenger hunt around Pine Rest’s future facility
- Explore the job site in virtual reality, walking through the Pine Rest facility before it’s even completed
- Watch a construction robot (nicknamed EV3PO) in action, drawing logos and layout lines with precision
- Create a mini plumbing system using PVC pipes, couplings, and their imagination
- Mix and pour concrete to create decorated stepping stones to bring home
- Build a cardboard tower and knock it down with a swinging wrecking ball
- Learn about safety gear and even build a personalized first-aid kit at the Safety First Headquarters
Each station offered both a hands-on activity and a “Construction Connection”— helping kids understand how each tool or concept is used on a real project like Pine Rest’s new pediatric facility.
“Welcoming the Future Builders event to our job site meant much more than showing a building — it was sharing a dream in the making,” said Heather Treib, Project Executive at Pine Rest. “Pine Rest’s Pediatric Center of Behavioral Health will soon be a place where children and families find comfort, care, and hope, even in their hardest moments — a place where kids get back to being kids. Seeing so many children here today, full of energy and curiosity, was a beautiful preview of the future we’re building toward.”
The Pine Rest Pediatric Center of Behavioral Health is scheduled to open in March of 2026. It will be the first Michigan behavioral health center that is 100% dedicated to kids and their families. Learn more about the project here!
