BDW_SBA

Our Mission

The Still Building America project promotes awareness of the skilled trades as viable career options for our country’s next generation. Americans haven’t forgotten how to work with our hands, but our education system has struggled to properly present and foster a blue collar career as anything other than a Plan B, if at all. By paving a way for our youth to explore the blue collar world, getting tools into their hands, inspiring them to create, repair, and problem solve, and empowering them with fun educational opportunities beyond the traditional classroom experience, we are still building America.

Why It’s Important

With our education system placing a heavy focus on national assessment test scores and pushing 4-year university admission, American students are unable to focus on the vast career options that are actually available to them. If young people are shown that a successful future only comes through a high test score or a university acceptance letter, they are often left feeling defeated. This perpetuates a cycle of hopelessness and increases the chances that our youth will continue to face joblessness, lack of opportunity, generational poverty, illegal drug use, and high crime rates.  So many young people are at high risk in impoverished areas like our hometown of Detroit. They need opportunities to explore, dream, and express themselves outside of textbook math, science, and reading. It is amazing, however, how the desire to learn those things increases when you have an interest or hobby that requires those skills.

What We’re Up To!

  • STILL BUILDING AMERICA PODCAST presented by the FMA Podcast Network! We continue to share incredible stories of diverse individuals in the skilled trades, from welders to entrepreneurs to metal artists. Please like, follow, give 5-star reviews :-), and listen to the stories on your favorite podcast platform! And please check out nearly a decade’s worth of inspiring Still Building America interviews on TheFabricator.com.
  • FREE WELDING WORKSHOPS for STUDENTS! We hold as many FREE welding workshops for Detroit high school students as possible! (Teachers/Mentors: please get in touch with darla@browndogwelding.com for more info)

#GOALS

  • EDUCATE: Offer free school presentations and interactive and hands-on projects led by enthusiastic industry professionals, such as welders, auto technicians, electricians, millwrights, and other highly skilled tradespeople.
  • ASSIST: Offer assistance to high school welding students who need to build portfolios for SkillsUSA competitions and other career-building opportunities.
  • DONATE: Still Building America toolkits for elementary and middle school students. Each kit will include a colorful instructional and project idea booklet, along with ideas for sourcing free materials to practice.

Meet Josh & Darla

Skilled trades have been central to the lives of Josh and Darla Welton. Their passion for the blue-collar world fuels their mission to raise awareness about the value and viability of trade careers for the next generation of Americans.

Josh is a welder, fabricator, teacher, artist, writer, skilled trades advocate, and automotive enthusiast. He contributes regularly to TheFabricator.com, The Welder Magazine (FMA Publications), and co-hosts multiple podcasts—including The Still Building America Podcast, The Fabricator Podcast, and Playing With Fire. In 2018, he received the WEMCO/AWS Foundation Excellence in Welding Award (Media category) for his work promoting welding. Known for his bold voice and adventurous spirit, Josh has welded and written around the globe. Josh is a fierce defender of the American shop floor worker and challenges any person or organization claiming that there is a skills gap instead of the actual wage gap within welding and other trades industries. 

Darla comes from a long line of tradespeople. Her grandmother worked as an industrial sewer, her grandfather and uncle worked as industrial union plumbers, her great-grandfather was a machinist, her father retired as a millwright and apprenticeship instructor, her older brother is a millwright, and of course, her husband Josh is a millwright and welder. While Darla holds a B.A., her academic thesis highlighted labor literature from the Industrial Revolution and the Luddite movement, emphasizing workers’ rights during the rise of automation. She firmly believes that improved technology should equate to improved quality of human life. Darla has loved learning to weld from Josh, running their CNC plasma table, and hosting welding workshops in their Detroit metal shop. Darla is also a contributing writer and content creator for TheFabricator.com and The WELDER Magazine (FMA Publications). 

In 2014, Josh launched the Still Building America column on TheFabricator.com, spotlighting young, driven tradespeople nationwide. In 2018, Darla joined him in interviewing subjects, and the two expanded it into a broader project promoting skilled trades, particularly to the next generation of welders and tradespeople. By 2024, Still Building America evolved into a podcast under the FMA Podcast Network, co-hosted by Josh and Darla and continuing to spotlight rising voices in the trades.

In 2025, Josh and Darla were invited to meet with representatives of the President’s Executive Office in Washington, D.C., to advocate for skilled trades workers and fair wages. 

The couple has served as industry partners and judges for Skills USA Michigan’s welding sculpture competition since the state first included the category in 2023.

Through Still Building America, Josh and Darla continue using their shared passion to educate, inspire, and fight for the future of blue-collar workers.