Lauren Martin had tried the other way. She'd looked for experienced plumbers. She'd posted jobs and waited.
The workers weren't there.
So the VP of Seaside Plumbing in Bishopville, Maryland, arrived at the only conclusion that made sense.
"We finally just said: we gotta grow our own," Martin recalls. "There's really no other way."
That conviction — born out of necessity after the company pivoted from new construction to residential services in 2019 — has now become a nonprofit. The Seaside Toolbox Academy has grown from an internal hiring pipeline into a regional trades advocacy organization reaching nearly 7,000 students a year.
Starting Small, Thinking Bigger
What began as a survival strategy — hosting apprentices, visiting local schools, showing up at career fairs — quietly became something else. Martin joined her local workforce development board. Seaside started appearing at community events across Worcester, Wicomico, Somerset, and Sussex counties, spanning the Delmarva Peninsula. Their skills lab at the shop became a training hub for employees and curious visitors alike.
But running all of that through a plumbing company has limits.
"It is very much not profitable at all for a business to do those things on a regular basis," Martin says. "They're important to us, but they're costly."
Two years ago, the Martins made it official. The Seaside Toolbox Academy was incorporated as a standalone 501(c)(3), and Shaina Adkins came on as Executive Director.
An Intermediary Between Young People and Meaningful Work
Adkins describes the Academy's mission simply: get between young people and a career worth having. In practice, that means her team is in schools two to three days a week across multiple counties — speaking to students, running interactive demos, making the trades feel real rather than theoretical.
Last year, the Academy stood in front of roughly 6,000 to 7,000 students across about 40 school visits.
And they're not waiting for high school.
The team goes to Touch-a-Truck events for preschoolers. They visit kindergartners. They teach elementary school kids to belly-crawl as if they're moving under a house. "By the time they get to the age to consider a career," Adkins says, "the trades will have been in their lives long enough to be at the forefront of their mind."
Next school year, the Academy plans to open its on-site lab for student field trips. Further out, the team is working to build a fully equipped mobile training lab — a truck and travel trailer with interactive stations covering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical. The goal is to bring the classroom to the students, especially in areas where transportation is a barrier.
The work reaches well beyond teenagers. Adkins has been building partnerships with nonprofits serving adults in transition — career changers, underserved community members, and returning citizens. This summer, the Academy will host a group of young women from an empowerment program to teach foundational homeownership skills. "So they'll never have to depend on anyone else to get it done," Adkins says.
The Stories That Keep Them Going
When Martin and Adkins discuss why this work matters, they return to individuals.
There's the boy who first showed up to the Academy's annual Inside the Toolbox community event at age 12, came back every year for five years, and is now 16 — and officially an apprentice at Seaside Plumbing.
There's the letter from a local elementary school, written by a young girl who said she wanted to be a plumber when she grew up.
And there's the woman who came in to interview for a customer service role.
"She said she really wanted to be a plumber, but felt like she had to start somewhere," Martin recalls. When the interviewer mentioned that Seaside already had female field technicians, the woman's face changed. "She was like, 'Oh my god, I didn't know.' She didn't want to be the only one."
She applied for the technician position instead.
Martin has watched that dynamic play out across her entire career. Visibility creates permission. When there are more women in plumbing, more women apply. When more tradespeople look like the community's students, more of those students can picture themselves in the work.
The Structural Fight
Changing perception is one thing. Changing systems is another.
Martin believes that reaching children before stereotypes are set is essential, which is why she advocates for tradespeople to go into elementary schools, just as dentists and firefighters do. "Plumbers protect the health and safety of everyone," she says. "Clean, running water and proper sanitation are what set our country apart from undeveloped countries. And they're so taken for granted."
There are structural barriers, too. Maryland's journeyman licensing exam — taken after four years of apprenticeship — carries a pass rate of just 35%. Martin sits on the board of Explore the Trades, a national nonprofit, and has been working with state senators to push for reform. HVAC and electrical apprentices can complete four years of training and enter the workforce without taking a single high-stakes exam. Plumbers can't.
Maryland's 2030 initiative — aiming to place 45% of graduating high school seniors into apprenticeship programs — has helped shift the dynamic. Where the Academy used to knock down doors to get into schools, Adkins says they're now fielding inbound requests. Delaware, just across the state line, has no comparable initiative. The contrast in traction is stark.
Still, the momentum is real. COVID accelerated skepticism about the value of a four-year degree. AI anxiety is driving new interest in the trades — people watching white-collar roles get automated are looking for work that requires a human being in a physical space.
"I cannot foresee an AI plumber going into somebody's house just yet," Martin says. "AI is going to enhance what we do. It's not going to replace it."
A Vision Without a Ceiling
Ask Martin and Adkins what the Academy looks like in 10 years, and the answers converge quickly.
A dedicated facility with multiple labs — plumbing, HVAC, electrical — open to the public for continuing education, certifications, and homeowner skills. A mobile training unit reaching schools and community sites across the peninsula. A Healthy Homes Relief Fund that pairs real service calls with workforce training, using the work itself to bring new people into the trade.
"We build affordable housing," Martin says. "But who's going to maintain it? Somebody has to."
Adkins's 10-year picture includes expanded geography — from three counties to regional recognition. People are already calling from outside the service area asking whether the Academy plans to grow.
"Many hands make lighter work," she says.
The thread running through all of it is the trades as a path, not a fallback. "Not a day goes by that you're not touching something the trades have touched," Adkins says. "The trades literally protect the health and safety of the nation — and they're careers that can break generational poverty lines."
America's infrastructure runs on people who know how to use their hands. There aren't enough of them.
Seaside Plumbing and the Seaside Toolbox Academy are making it their problem to solve — one school visit, one apprentice, one career at a time.
The work is local, but the stakes are national.
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