THE LONG WAY HERE.

CHAPTER 01

The scenic route

I’m Kevin. I’m curious about a lot of things, and my career path is best described as the scenic route.

I’ve never been short of direction. It just kept changing.

Tradies United grew out of that journey: years of learning, travelling, starting over, and occasionally discovering that the thing I wanted to do next required going back to school. Again.

I started as a teacher.

Correction: a PE teacher.

You know the saying: “If you can’t do, teach. If you can’t teach, teach PE.”

As someone who taught PE, I’d like to offer a strong defence.

After a quick warm-up.

CHAPTER 02

Two years. A few new words.

I enjoyed teaching, but there was a whole world out there, and I wanted to see some of it. Travel took hold, and I ended up living in Australia for two years.

Australia taught me plenty. Mostly slang. They shorten words I didn’t realise needed shortening. I’m fairly sure they have slang for slang.

“Tradies” means tradespeople. That one stayed with me.

Then, one day, I used “reckon” in a sentence without realising it.

No hesitation. No impression of an Australian. Just my own mouth making decisions without consulting me.

That’s when I knew I’d been away from home too long.

So I returned to Canada and moved to Thunder Bay, Ontario, to learn how to fly.

As you do.

CHAPTER 03

A change of course

For a while, aviation became my world. I thought I’d eventually become a flight instructor. Teaching and flying seemed like a good combination. Two of my interests had finally agreed to work together.

That plan didn’t work out.

Restructuring brought my time working in aviation to an end, and suddenly I needed a different plan.

It was disappointing. I’d pictured a future there. Having to imagine a new one took some adjusting.

I’d chosen plenty of changes before. This one arrived without asking.

For the first time, I felt depressed. I’d been excluded through no fault of my own. Restructuring. “Nothing personal,” they say. It still felt personal to the person starting over.

I’ve felt like a number plenty of times in life. During my undergrad, I was 202544716. Or at least that was what they asked for whenever they wanted me to identify myself.

I’m Kevin, by the way.

But an unexpected ending still leaves room for a beginning.

CHAPTER 04

Another door opens

The East Coast was calling. Friendly people. Fresh air. A chance to start another chapter.

And, apparently, another opportunity to acquire tools.

Carpentry and electrical work became my next passions. I wanted to learn the skills to build my future home.

A modest little undertaking. Just learn how to build a house.

People say when one door closes, another opens. I figured learning how to build a door couldn’t hurt either.

Did I learn everything I needed?

Not even close.

But I gained skills. I gained confidence. And I gained a much better appreciation of the knowledge, patience and practice that go into doing a job properly.

There’s something satisfying about understanding how things work. Making something fit. Seeing a project take shape. Being able to do something today that you couldn’t do yesterday.

There’s also something valuable about knowing when to ask someone who knows more than you.

Which, when you’re learning to build a house, happens quite a bit.

CHAPTER 05

Room for you here

Looking back, I can see how those experiences found their way into Tradies United.

ADHD is part of my story too, alongside the teaching, travelling and learning as I go.

Australia gave me the word. Aviation inspired the roundel.

A roundel is a circular badge or emblem. Ours has the red lion from the Nova Scotia flag at its centre, on a white background inside a blue ring. A bit of aviation, a bit of home.

Life on the East Coast and my interest in carpentry and electrical work helped shape what I wanted to build.

And teaching kept bringing me back to the same belief: people do better when they feel included.

That matters to me.

I’m not trying to build an organisation that hires and fires people. I want to help build a community that anyone can join, without having to earn the right to belong.

I want Tradies United to feel like a crew you can join without already knowing somebody in it. Somewhere experienced tradespeople, apprentices, retired hands and people just finding their feet can recognise something of themselves.

Union or non-union. Years of experience or still asking questions. Working in a trade or simply appreciating the people who do.

There should be room for you here.

You don’t need a perfectly straight career path. You don’t need to have everything figured out.

I certainly didn’t have “start Tradies United” written into the original plan.

But a few things stayed with me through all those changes: curiosity, a growing respect for practical skills, and the importance of making people feel welcome.

That’s what I’m putting into this.

Different trades. One crew.

I reckon that’s a good place to start.

Our community used to have a makerspace. Since it closed, I’ve been thinking about what a place like that makes possible. You can make something alongside a neighbour, ask a question and pick up a skill you can pass on.

THERE’S ROOM FOR YOU HERE

You don’t have to buy a thing.

Seriously.

Have your own patch made. Sew it onto your favourite Carhartt jacket, an old hoodie, or whatever you’ve already got.

Print your own sticker. Put it on your toolbox, or wherever you like.

I’ll even give you the artwork files for free.

You don’t need to buy a new hoodie to belong here. You don’t need to buy anything.

And if you’d rather have someone else make it for you, well, there’s a shop for that too. Just click the link below.

The community is free. The artwork is free. Belonging is free.

No applications. No job titles. No employee numbers. No exclusions.

Just people.

Different trades. One crew.

— Kevin