On April 23, 2026, members of the Modesto Executive Electric team spent the morning at the 5th Annual Construction Trades Day, hosted by Valley Builders Exchange. Owner and President Tori Simpson attended alongside Vice President and General Manager Kevin Simpson and Project Manager and Estimator Daniel Stall, and all three came away with the same takeaway.
The energy around the skilled trades is changing, and you can see it and feel it.
Construction Trades Day connects high school students from across the Central Valley with the companies, equipment, and tradespeople who keep the region building. Throughout the morning, students moved between hands-on stations and talked with working professionals about real career paths in carpentry, concrete, heavy equipment, engineering, and the electrical trade. For many of them, it was a first look at what a day on the job actually involves.
That shift matters to Modesto Executive Electric. The skilled electricians and apprentices of tomorrow are the high school juniors and seniors walking those booths. Daniel Stall knows that path well as a second-generation electrician who grew up on job sites before stepping into project management, and events like Trades Day give the next generation that same honest, unfiltered look at the work and the long careers it can lead to, right here in the Valley.
We all here at MEE believe that the future of the industry depends on welcoming new talent in and showing them what is possible. Modesto Executive Electric sees that play out on its own crews, where apprentices grow into journeymen/women and build lasting careers close to home. Watching a room full of students take that same interest seriously was a genuine highlight of the day.
Thank you to Valley Builders Exchange for organizing another excellent Trades Day, and to the educators and students who showed up ready to learn. If April 23 was any indication, the future of the Central Valley's construction industry and the trades are making a comeback!