Fifty Carbon County middle schoolers will soon become engineers as they begin to outfit a DUI trailer for area police departments.

The project is part of the Carbon County SHINE Career Academy, a program that teaches sixth through eighth grade students about the careers of the future.Over the next seven weeks, the Career Academy, which takes places at Carbon Career & Technical Institute, will partner with Kovatch Mobile Equipment Corporation of Nesquehoning to outfit a 24-foot trailer that Carbon and Schuylkill DUI Task Forces could utilizes during DUI checkpoints.The trailer will include an office area where police can take suspected intoxicated individuals to have their blood drawn, refrigerated storage for the blood samples, a sink, and storage for all items needed to conduct a checkpoint.Rachel Strucko, coordinator for the Career Academy, explained that the trailer came about because Kovatch and SHINE wanted to find a way to partner on a fun project for students."I met with Jason (Davis) from Kovatch and he suggested the DUI vehicle and we thought it would be wonderful because we have a high alcoholism rate in Carbon County," she said. "This is a good way for the students to get involved in a community project that gives back to the communities they live in."Over the next seven weeks, we will build a DUI trailer for Carbon and Schuylkill task forces," Strucko continued. "The kids will be going over all the careers that will be involved in the creation of this trailer and they will also build on their math skills, physics will also be involved. This is going to be a really good learning tool for these students."On Wednesday evening, a number of the Career Academy students visited KME to kick-off the project.John Kovatch III, president and CEO of KME, welcomed everyone to the plant.He explained that Kovatch employs 850 people at the company, which was started by his father as a two-car repair shop in 1946, and grew into the leading manufacturer of firetrucks and emergency vehicles in the world.Jason Davis, chassis group product manager and one of the engineers working on the Career Academy project, said that the company is excited about the project.Mahoning Township Police Officer Audie Mertz, who is the head of the Carbon County DUI Task Force, then explained the reason for the need of this trailer."The goal is to keep everyone on the road that isn't drinking safe and this trailer will help us do that," he said.Strucko thanked Kovatch for opening his company to the Career Academy."Kovatch has been a big support of SHINE over the years and this is just another example of a community at work," she said.Following the welcome, the students toured a number of the plants to see just how firetrucks and other specialized emergency vehicles are built.All firetrucks are customized to meet the fire department's needs and are built from the ground up.Each truck begins as flat sheets of steel or aluminum and is constructed based on a computer rendering. All pieces are constructed on-site and move through each department until a finished truck rolls out of the company and heads to its final destination.The Career Academy will officially begin the outfitting of the trailer, which was purchased by the SHINE program, today at Carbon Career & Technical Institute in Jim Thorpe.Parts for the project were either purchased through SHINE and Kovatch, or obtained through donations from various vendors.Once the trailer is complete, the students will formally present it to the area police departments.The Carbon County SHINE Career Academy began in 2011 through a partnership between Lehigh Carbon Community College and CCTI, as a way to bridge the gap in the LCCC SHINE Afterschool Program model. It allows Carbon County students in grades six, seven and eight, to look into jobs of the future through hands-on projects; while building on their current academic skills.Recently, the students learned about 3-D printing and how it can revolutionize the medical and mechanical worlds. During that session, they printed 3-D hearts and pacemakers.