CATEC provided students with a free pair of Red Wing Shoes protective footwear on Tuesday, September 19, 2023 at CATEC’s campus. Red Wing was also at Western Albemarle High School to fit Emergency Medical Technician students from the WAHS campus on Friday, September 22.
CATEC provides industry uniforms and personal protective gear to all students. As part of that initiative, CATEC is excited to work with Red Wing Shoes to provide its students with personal protective footwear again for the 2023-2024 school year. CATEC Principal Dr. Stacey Heltz says, “It’s always a CATEC priority that our students have the best possible safety equipment. Supplying CATEC students with Red Wing Shoes is another step in keeping our students safe and preparing them to enter their industries.”
Red Wing Certified Fit and Product Specialists measured students’ feet, discuss their safety needs, and provide digital foot scans to identify individual needs in their mobile shoe store. Red Wing Shoes Store Manager Bill Gardner says the collaboration with CATEC is, “an amazing opportunity for Red Wing Charlottesville to engage with America’s next generation of tradesmen, tradeswomen, and first responders. It gives us a great sense of pride to get them started off on the ‘right foot’ and to be a part of such a wonderful community institution such as CATEC.”
Red Wing Shoes is located on Abbey Road and provides the Charlottesville area with high-quality work footwear and accessories. It has sponsored CATEC’s School-to-Work Signing Day event for the last three years; the event celebrates students who entered the workforce upon graduation from their CATEC programs each May. Participating students walked away with a free pair of work boots courtesy of Red Wing.