Dream it, build it, drive it: All-female '57 Chevy truck project aims to empower and inspire
PHOENIX (KSAZ) - Women from all over the country are coming to the valley to help with a special project that aims to empower and inspire. The group is building a truck that will be featured on a TV show and eventually hit the showroom floor in Las Vegas.
It was actually the owner of Bogi's garage, Bogi Lateiner, who came up with this idea. The project began in January and this women-only group is well on their way to restoring this 1957 Chevrolet truck.
The '57 Chevy may not look like much now, but soon it will look as good as it once did on the showroom floor.
Back in January, Lateiner started the project, named Chevy Montage. The goal is to have an all-female build and these women are well on their way.
"Work together with one another and form connections and form relationships and build a really cool truck, but it really has nothing to do with the truck, it's really all about the community we're building," said Lateiner.
Dozens of women from across the country are taking part, like Briana Huhn, a welder by trade, who came from Minnesota to help.
"The idea that I could potentially inspire other women, especially little women, to do things that are out of the norm, it's a cool feeling. Even if one person is interested, I think it makes a difference," she said.
Huhn also brought her 8-year-old daughter Rheyna with her.
"I want to be a welder and a tinkerer," said Rheyna. "I just like watching the sparks and how it feels."
Once complete, the truck will be unveiled at the SEMA show in Las Vegas.
"There's going to be a lot of high profile builds right along side ours, which is what we want. We want a lot of people to see what we're doing and what a group of women from all over the world can do," said Lateiner.
From there, the women will take the truck to multiple states to show it off, but the main goal is to inspire other women.
"Use this as a tool for attracting new people to the industry, but also showing real life faces of women who do this work. We can tell kids until we're blue in the face they can be anything they want to be, but until they see someone who looks like them doing it, they don't really believe it," said Lateiner.
The group is looking for more women and sponsors to get involved. No experience is required.