SCWBA

🎉 Accepted Offer! 🎉

We are excited to share that the 2025–2026 SCWBA Student Build has an accepted offer!

This year’s home represents an incredible collaboration between the South Central Wisconsin Builders Association, Kaiser Design Build, and the School District of Janesville, WI—bringing hands-on learning, local craftsmanship, and community partnership together in a truly meaningful way.

The home was listed by Realty Executives Premier and overseen by Broker/Associate Kelly McPherson. We are proud to help bring this special project one step closer to its next chapter.

After being showcased in the 2026 SCWBA Parade of Homes, the home is scheduled to close on September 25th.

Congratulations to everyone involved in this outstanding student build and to the future homeowners! 🏡👏

Welcome to SCWBA, Stronghold Deck and Design! We are excited to add you to our network of home building professionals!

One of our leadership teams from SCWBA Young Professionals Network has recently launched a podcast, or vodcast rather!
Check it out!

Welcome to Episode 1 of "This D.A.M.N Punch List", a brand new SCWBA vocast, "where we keep you up to date on all things construction in South Central Wisconsin".

"This D.A.M.N. Foundation: Breaking Ground on a Home...and a Vodcast" kicks off our very first episode from the job site of the 2026-2027 SCWBA Student Build, where construction is just getting underway. Hosts Dick and Meghan are joined by Erin Weberpal of Sockness Builders, this year's SCWBA Student Build General Contractor, to talk about the vision for this year's build, what students can expect to learn, and why building a strong foundation is about so much more than concrete.

This episode gives you a behind the scenes look at one of South Central Wisconsin's premier workforce development programs, where students gain real world experience alongside professional builders and contractors while construction a new home from the ground up.

Whether you're interested in construction, skilled trades, education, workforce development, or the stories behind the people building our communities, you're in the right place.

Like this video, subscribe to our channel, and turn on notifications so you don't miss future episodes featuring industry leaders, builders, community partners, and the next generation of home building professionals.

This vodcast is proudly brought to you by South Central Wisconsin Builders Association (SCWBA) and the SCWBA Young Professionals Network.

YPN Leadership Team Members:
🔎Dick King, King's Design Services
🔎Meghan Werner, Brabazon Title Team Group, LLC
🔎Alex Coffman, ATC Remodeling
🔎Alex Held, First Community Bank
Legacy Mentor: Norm Paulson, Paulson Kimball Construction LLC

This D.A.M.N. Punch List, EPISODE 1: This D.A.M.N. Foundation Welcome to Episode 1 of "This D.A.M.N Punch List", a brand new SCWB...

Big things are already happening at the SCWBA Student Build site!

Long before students are back in session SCWBA, along with our general contractor and subcontractors, is busy prepping the site - setting forms, and pouring the foundation so everything is ready for Advanced Construction students from the School District of Janesville this fall.

And be sure to check out our new sign on site—it highlights our partnership with School District of Janesville, WI and general contractor, Sockness Builders, Inc., and features a beautiful AI rendering of our vision for this year’s build. We can’t wait to see this year's students bring it to life!

🔥 This is what leadership looks like.

Today, SCWBA Young Professionals Project Team #1 traded their usual jobsites for a special project build day, creating a custom drop station for the winning bidder of our “Carpenter for a Day” experience donated to the House of Mercy Mercy Charity Ball.

But this project is about more than woodworking.
It’s about using our skills, time, and passion to make a real impact in our association and our community. ❤️

House of Mercy provides emergency shelter and vital support services for women and families experiencing homelessness, helping them build a path toward safe, stable housing. We’re honored to play a small role in supporting their incredible mission.

This is exactly what the SCWBA Young Professionals Network is all about.
💥 Building projects.
💥 Building leadership.
💥 Building relationships.
💥 Building community
💥 Building the future of our industry.

If you’re 45 or younger and part of SCWBA, YPN gives you the chance to roll up your sleeves on meaningful community projects, develop your leadership skills, connect with other driven industry professionals, and learn directly from the experienced industry leaders who have paved the way before us.

This isn’t another networking group where you collect business cards.This is where you build something that matters.

YPN Team 1
-Lucas Comstock, JC Builders Inc.
-Jolea Wallisch, Badger State Maintenance
-Jordan Stivarius, Budget Blinds of Janesville & Monroe

It was an early morning meeting of the minds, and an educational moment, already today. Earlier this morning we met Jon Sockness at the 2026-2027 Student Build site, where Mike Nehls Excavating talked us through some soil related matters and we were able to learn even more about what goes into the build process.

While school may be out for the summer, SCWBA members such as Combs & Associates, Mike Nehls Excavating, Sockness Builders, and Marklein Builders have already contributed to this year’s project.

There is so much more to what this program provides than most people realize, and we are both grateful and proud to have so many awesome SCWBA members supporting it.

Happy Wednesday! Go out and make something big happen today!

🚧 Breaking ground and building futures! 🏠

SCWBA is proud to kick off our 2026–2027 Student Build partnership with the School District of Janesville’s Advanced Construction classes by breaking ground and excavating the site in preparation for student arrival in late August/early September.

Each year, this hands-on program gives students the opportunity to learn real-world construction skills, explore careers in the building trades, and help bring a new home to life from the ground up.

This year’s build will be led by SCWBA member and General Contractor Sockness Builders, Inc. We’re grateful for their leadership, expertise, and commitment to mentoring the next generation of building industry professionals.

Congratulations to the students, instructors, partners, and SCWBA members who make this incredible program possible each year. We can’t wait to watch this build take shape! Just check out the AI inspiration rendering for a glimpse of what's to come... Amazing!

This month's edition of "SCWBA NEWS" is now online!
Check out current and past editions and explore all SCWBA has to offer at https://www.scwba.com/

Contact: [email protected] to learn more about membership
or apply online via the Join SCWBA page of our website.

We want to take a moment and share a big thank you to our 2026 SCWBA Golf Outing sponsors who helped make last week's event a great success! Our association is driven by the dedication of our valued members. Thank you to all of these amazing supporters!