Kay Summers (@o.kay.welds)

I’m originally from Elkhart, Indiana, A city referenced as the “RV Capital of the world” and the industry in which I started working. I worked on production lines, ran production, stocked production etc. and to be honest, I didn’t enjoy any of it. I remember one of the factories I was working in had just opened up a new welding/brazing department in the back of the building. I was so curious and asked one of the older guys if he could teach me. We started off brazing copper and then did a little welding and I was absolutely hooked, as cheesy as that sounds to say. Not long after that I went to my supervisor and (in short) asked if I could eventually be taught how to weld and be moved to the back to work. Without even the slightest hesitation he said, No. The answer No wasn’t uncommon for me to hear in any factory I worked in, unfortunately. I was told no a lot of times, for many things. What none of those employers knew about me though, is that the answer “no” was never a deterrent for me, and never actually stopped me from doing things I wanted. As a young child this was one personality trait my mom probably despised, but that “stubbornness” turned out to be the catalyst that would eventually impact my life for the better. Truthfully, in the back of my mind I never thought I’d get this far. I never thought I’d amount to much in life, I struggled terribly in school and dropped out of high school with a 1.0 GPA. But, remembering all the times I was told “no” ironically propelled me forward into taking a leap of faith and putting myself through the welding programs at Lake Michigan College where I maintained straight A’s, a 4.0 GPA, and made the Dean’s list, successes I mostly accredit to my amazing teachers (Kramb, and Riley, my TIG and MIG teachers and Kreitner, my machine and tool teacher). Eventually I landed my first job doing sanitary welding and built a lot of equipment for big name brands like Kraft, Smucker’s, and Starbucks, which was enjoyable but after some time I decided that I wanted to pursue one of my other passions, cars! A little over a year ago I landed my current job, welding and fabricating custom hot rods and dragsters at ‘US 12 Speed and Custom’ in New Buffalo, Michigan, and I truly couldn’t be happier. I’ve been welding and fabricating professionally since 2018, but I'm still considered pretty “green” in this industry. There’s just so much I want to learn and I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface.

One person I’d like to collaborate with would be Rae Ripple. I just adore her! Her story, energy, positivity. She’s just a great person all around and a wonderful artist that I’d love the opportunity to work with someday.