Be Pro Be Proud brings skilled trades tour to Montgomery
The fair’s closing day paired virtual trade simulations with a First Responders Day salute, underscoring workforce needs across the capital region.
Be Pro Be Proud’s 10th Anniversary Tour stopped at the Alabama National Fair Monday, giving Montgomery-area students and families a hands-on look at high-demand, high-wage technical careers on the fair’s closing day.
Students and families climbed aboard a full-size tractor-trailer outfitted with virtual reality simulators and interactive stations built around real trade work—welding, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, electrical work, heavy equipment and advanced manufacturing. A visitor who had never held a welding torch could run a bead in virtual reality, then talk to someone about the employers, training and education pathways that lead to the job.
“Putting students and their parents in front of the same career at the same time changes the conversation at the dinner table,” Andrew Parker, executive director of Be Pro Be Proud, said. “With Meta’s support, we can help young people see high-demand, high-wage technical careers as a first choice.”
The workshop’s visit fell on First Responders Day, when firefighters, law enforcement officers, emergency medical services personnel, dispatchers and other emergency service professionals received free admission for themselves and up to three immediate family members. The Meta Montgomery Data Center supported both.
“Nearly every family in this part of Alabama comes through our gates in October,” Randy Stephenson, executive director of the Alabama National Fair, said. “We closed this year with the midway full and a thank-you to the people who answer our emergency calls. That takes a lot of partners, and we’re so glad to have Be Pro Be Proud and Meta included on that list.”
The data center, announced in 2024, has more than 1,000 skilled trade workers on-site at peak construction and is part of more than $1.5 billion Meta has invested in Alabama’s capital region.
“The Alabama National Fair is a Montgomery institution, and we’re excited to celebrate it through our partnership with Be Pro Be Proud,” Henry Thornton, community engagement manager at Meta, said. “At Meta, we believe the future is for everyone—the students exploring careers, the tradespeople building this community, and the first responders keeping it safe. We’re honored to stand alongside them.”
The Montgomery stop is one of 10 on the tour, which continues through the fall with a $500,000 investment from Meta. Since 2023, the partnership has reached nearly 70,000 students across Meta data center communities.
Be Pro Be Proud Inc. is a nonprofit workforce development initiative created by the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce/Associated Industries of Arkansas that connects students around the country to high-tech, high-paying technical careers. Through partnerships with state agencies, local industry and higher education, Be Pro Be Proud works to replenish a professional workforce that has been in decline. The initiative launched in Arkansas in 2016 and has since licensed efforts in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas.
