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BELLEVILLE - The 2024 Home Expo is inching closer as new details emerge about the event, which is slated to be the biggest Home Expo event on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River. Shannon Stelling with the Home Builders & Remodelers Metro East Association (HBRMEA) appeared on a recent episode of Our Daily Show! on Riverbender.com to share more details about the event, local trade programs and facilities, and more.
“It’s not just a home show,” Stelling said. “It is a way to feature some of our different organizations [and] schools on the Illinois side of the river.”
Stelling said the 2024 Home Expo will offer free admission, free parking, and about 140-150 vendor booths, in addition to $22,000 worth of giveaway prizes over the course of the event - including a hot tub. The expo will also feature performances from local high school bands, choirs, competitive dance and cheer teams, performing groups from the Special Olympics, and more.
The Belleville Area Humane Society will also be facilitating pet adoptions the entire weekend of the Home Expo. Attendees who bring dog or cat food to the Expo will get a second entry into the drawing for the many giveaway prizes, which Stelling added will be given away every hour.
The 2024 Home Expo is set for the weekend of March 8-10, 2024, and will be held at the Belle-Clair Fairgrounds & Expo Center in Belleville.
Stelling also emphasized the importance of raising awareness of the trades to local youth, and listed a few local programs and facilities that she believes are doing a great job doing so. The first example she gave was of the Center for Academic and Vocational Excellence (CAVE) in Belleville Township High School District #201.
“It’s an amazing campus with amazing programs,” Stelling said. “There’s such a need for workforce development to continue and to be a focus in the state of Illinois. We don’t have enough people to build, to fix, to repair or remodel, and programs like the CAVE are ensuring that we have next generations that are learning those skills and coming through the pipeline.”
She also commended Collinsville High School for their work promoting the trades to students through their vocational program. Their students even built a house, and shortly before it was completed, the Remodeler’s Council (an arm of the HBRMEA) presented them with a check for $500 - which the organization also did for four other trade programs at four more schools in the area.
“It’s a matter of just letting them be educated about the options,” she added. “The Collinsville vocational program is another strong program, and they’re doing a great job of making sure the kids know what choices they have - and they have all the most modern equipment, all the right tools, and they’re really trying to teach these kids the right way.”
To learn more about the Home Builders & Remodelers Metro East Association, visit their website at hbrmea.org. For more about local trade programs, the 2024 Home Expo, and more, check out the full interview with Stelling at the top of this story or on Riverbender.com/video.
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