Students at Southeastern High School got the chance to operate earth-moving equipment.
Organizers hope to connect the students to apprenticeships.
Equipment operators are in demand and can start at $18 an hour.
Sight of earth-moving equipment in the neighborhood prompted kids' interest.
For people working the Hantz Woodlands project on Detroit's east side, it came as a simple request.
"A lot of kids would stop by and say, 'Can I drive your equipment?'" said Mike Score, president of Hantz Farms.
Score looked for a way to say yes. He said it was obvious the kids were interested in operating front-end loaders, backhoes and other earth-moving equipment they saw in their neighborhood, so he reached out to friends in the industry.
Ray Debuck of Debuck Construction, a Shelby Township firm working on the project, and Alta Equipment, which sells the machinery, both agreed to help. They brought a mini excavator, a skidder and a front-end loader to some property across the street from Southeastern High School in November for the kids to use.
"It was awesome. I had a really good time," Debuck said. "I don't mind teaching when the kids want to learn. It was great teaching those kids."
In all, 55 students at the high school asked to participate. They were taken, three at a time, to try out each piece, working the levers and seeing what the machines could do.
The program even drew the interest of a local pizza delivery man, who saw the kids on the equipment and wanted to learn as well, Score said.
"In about a 20-minute period, they ran three pieces of equipment," Score said. "We had 55 kids go through, everyone said yeah, sign me up. We are trying to link these kids up with the apprentice program."
The apprenticeship program is run by Local 324 of the Operating Engineers, a Detroit-based union local that runs a training school on a 500-acre campus in Howell. Score hopes to get some of the kids from Southeastern into the program.
"Southeastern High School is an anchor institution, and it's really been struggling," Score said. "We'd like to help these kids make the leap from the lower east side of Detroit to this world-class training program."
People who qualify for the apprenticeships are typically paid $18 an hour while they learn, Score said, and wages go up from there, with good performance.
Debuck said there is demand for people who can do that kind of work, but it's hard to find qualified employees.
"I go through guys left and right," he said.