DETROIT (WXYZ) — Matthew Bracey has been educating and mentoring students in the masonry trade for over 20 years at Randolph Career and Technical Center in Detroit and has developed a reputation in the school for being a positive influence in their lives.
"We do these jobs to make sure the kids can get the same success that we had in life," Bracey said.
Hear more from Matthew Bracey in the video player below:
He caught the eye of Carhartt, which was on the hunt across the United States for five exceptional trade teachers. The award is called the Carhartt inaugural Steel Apple Award. Recipients receive $10,000 to put back into their classrooms.
Bracey's students told me if anyone deserved it, it was their teacher.
"They teach us how to keep pushing it forward and how to move outside of just the classroom and the workforce. They teach us how to be right in life," Randolph student Preston Hobbs said.
Preston told me Bracey was the teacher who exposed him to all the doors that will be open to him, just because of his skills in masonry.
"One thing I like about trades is you can work for yourself and you have unlimited opportunity," Preston said.
Todd Corley, senior vice president of inclusion, sustainability and community at Carhartt, explained that the company is working to help teachers boost the trade industry by awarding money and recognition to teachers who go above and beyond to encourage and motivate young people to pick up trades and break stigmas surrounding them.
"We're looking to close that gap, No. 1. We're looking to get young people excited about it to see opportunity and then to help them to imagine different things," Corley said.
