By Zac Pate, 12th grade
Special to The Tribune From FCCS
SPRINGVILLE — Matthew Loggins, from Springville, Alabama, is currently the welding teacher at Eden Career Tech Center and the welding teacher at Jeff State in Pell City. At the age of 18, Loggins started off as a youth minister in Springville.
“I love working with youth and helping them because when I was a youth, myself, I had older people who took me in when my parents divorced,” Loggins said. “So I wanted to try to give back and help young people the way I was helped.”
Loggins started welding when he was in high school after his dad came to his job and told him to get a pair of work boots, because he had to work Monday. When he started working at Usco, he did everything they told him to do and, while there, he learned welding.
Later on, he started a business with his friend called 2K Steel. It was a very wealthy business, but while he did enjoy his job, he didn’t feel like that was his calling. When he told Kal, the owner of 2K Steel, that he was going to look for another job, the job at Eden Career popped up. He thought it was a dream come true.
Loggins ended up getting the job and has been there ever since, driving the bus and teaching welding. He then got a job at Jeff State teaching welding, but he did not leave his job at Eden Career. He was offered a full-time job at Jeff State, but then he wouldn’t be able to work with younger youth.
“I felt like I was too old to be a youth minister for the church, but I feel like I can still teach welding,” Loggins said. “I still try not to only teach kids about welding, but also about life, how to be respectful to others, to let them know I care about them more than just welding.”
In honor of the state of Alabama’s 200th anniversary approaching in 2019, Governor Kay Ivey launched the Alabama Bicentennial Schools Initiative in December 2017 to give 200 Alabama schools the opportunity to participate in a year-long project representing their state’s history and achievements.
Nearly 400 K-12 schools statewide submitted proposals for the program, and each of the 200 chosen schools received a $2,000 grant to complete their project.
Among the schools chosen for this honor were five home-school groups, one of which was Trussville’s own Faith Community Christian School (FCCS).
For their project, the students of FCCS are collectively writing a book called Everyone Has A Story, which will profile noteworthy Alabamians, selected by the children.
The middle and high school students took a six-week Journalism class in the fall where they learned to write profile news stories about everyday heroes, while the elementary students are writing biographies of famous Alabamians.
