Burden's students after practicing how to stain a wood floor.
Craig Burden, grateful to God for being able to start a wood flooring store 14 months ago in Memphis, asked his pastor how he could give back. Open a flooring school and teach inner-city teenagers for free, the pastor responded.
Burden didn’t have the space or resources, but he pursued the idea anyway. “What our kids need are trades,” he says. “These inner-city kids don’t have the money to go to these trade schools.”
A YMCA director soon loaned him two empty rooms above a day care facility. Burden called his distributors, including Forest to Floor, and not only did they donate flooring material, equipment and textbooks, but their employees agreed to come teach. Burden filed for non-profit status, and Future Flooring Specialists was born.
The inaugural class hosted 20 students for 2 1/2 hours a night, three nights a week for 14 weeks. The students, ages 16–21, learned to install, sand and finish solid and engineered flooring.
For the next school, starting Jan. 16, the YMCA will let Burden use the entire building and a double-wide trailer. A good thing, too: The class size has swelled three-fold to 60 students. “I can’t even describe to you what you see in these young men’s eyes when they’re working a saw, listening to an instructor, working on a floor,” Burden says. To donate money or resources, visit GoFundMe.com/YourFloorManFFS or Facebook.com/YourFloorMan.
