Adrienne Bennett, September 7th, 2022
Title
Adrienne Bennett, September 7th, 2022
Description
In this interview, Adrienne Bennett talks about being nominated for the Hustle project and her business Benkari, LLC Plumbing, Water Quality and Conservation.
Publisher
Detroit Historical Society
Rights
Detroit Historical Society
Language
en-US
Narrator/Interviewee's Name
Adrienne Bennett
Brief Biography
Adrienne Bennett founded her business in 2007 with both of her sons.
Interviewer's Name
Billy Wall-Winkel
Interview Place
Detroit, MI
Date
9/07/2022
Interview Length
49:57
Transcriptionist
Taylor Claybrook
Transcription
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:00:00] Hello. My name is Billy Wall Winkel. This interview is for the Detroit Historical Society's Hustle Project. We are in Detroit, Michigan. This interview is on Wednesday, September 7th, 2022. And I'm sitting down with Adrienne Bennett. Thank you so much. Can you please start by spelling your name for me?
Adrienne Bennett [00:00:18] Okay. Adrienne is A-D-R-I-E-N-N-E, Bennett is B-E-N-N-E T-T.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:00:25] Thank you. Thank you. Start with, how did you first hear about the Hustle project?
Adrienne Bennett [00:00:32] I received an email that I had been nominated and really was blown away. And in the email it was stating what they wanted to do and what they were looking for. And they needed me to answer some additional questions. And so I proceeded. It told me that if I was selected or the business was selected, that we would be in a group. There would be an exhibit here at the Detroit Historical Museum and that they were going to select, I think, five to be in the permanent exhibit. And so I submitted my answers. I received a phone call on Friday and I must have said huh, five times because I said they said, Adrienne Bennett, I said yes this is Adrienne Bennett, how can I help you? well she said, I can't remember the lady's name that called me. She this is the Detroit Historical museum. We wanted you to be aware that your name was selected as being nominated. And you are an honoree. And we want to ask you, are you interested in being part of the exhibit? I'm like huh? Who, me? And I'm like, what? You know? And so she said I said, Can you repeat that again? Because I just couldn't believe it. So that's how it happened.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:01:58] Do you remember what it was like? Like telling people, like, how quickly did you share the news?
Adrienne Bennett [00:02:03] Well, that's just it. I was told not to. Oh, because we had to wait until they made the announcement, which was the event they had here. So I ended up sharing it with my partner, who also happens to be my youngest son. And he's like I'm the one who nominated you. I'm like, Oh, wow. Because I had no clue who nominated me for this museum. So and so I said I let him know that I had been so lucky. And at the time I was in the office. I have put the phone on speaker. So my office manager, she was working on something else. She usually answers the phone. And she happened to overhear the conversation. So she knew. So when we hung up, I sat there on the edge of the desk and I was like, I'm just in shock. You know, I said, Does this make me artifact? Does this mean. What does this mean to me in a museum? And I just gets sat in a daze. And so she heard the fact we couldn't tell anybody else. We get to keep to ourselves, too, after they make the announcement. So I was pretty good about that. But once I did tell people, there was one person I had to tell because the night of the event it was overlapping with a safety meeting for our company and it was going to be held in Troy and they were taking headcounts. And I'm like, I can't make it. And she says, Well, this is you know, we've got the man coming from Nationals who's going to be talking about all this safety information is so important, important that you be there, you know, pertinent as is. What can I share something with you guys? Swear to keep the secrecy. So she swore to secrecy when she was screaming on the phone. She goes, she's. She was over hyperventilating. I'm like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So she's like, the first person I told, but everybody I tell, since then, I got the same response.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:03:58] That's lovely.
Adrienne Bennett [00:03:58] Well, it is because no one ever thinks about being in a museum until after you're dead. Where have you done something major? You know, the Hall of Fame. You know, a museum. It's usually artifacts is something that you did, you know, and a museum is named after you. But the those people are, you know, already gone. So for me to smell my roses while I'm alive. That's what I know what this statement means now to be able to smell your roses while you're alive. Smell my flowers. Because that night I was just in awe, of the people and the turn out in and for this museum, to think of something of this magnitude, because as they told the story, this has never been done anywhere else in the country that day, like on the you know, on the cutting edge of doing this. And we were the first recipients of this so that made it even more special.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:04:56] That's great to hear.
Adrienne Bennett [00:04:57] Yeah.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:04:58] So let's talk a bit about why you were nominated. So what is the name of your business?
Adrienne Bennett [00:05:06] It's Benkari, LLC Plumbing, Water Quality and Conservation. And what that entails is they we're a plumbing company. But we also can test the water to make sure the water is safe, to cleanse for consumption, human consumption. And we have a laboratory that we're partnered with that will take the samples. This is sort of a special certification that our company had to go through through ASSE.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:05:40] Who's the ASSE.
Adrienne Bennett [00:05:41] That's the American Society sorry, the ASSE is the American Society of Sanitation Engineers. And so. There was a course that we had to take in Ann Arbor, and we sent our project manager and one of our journeymen plumbers. And it was. I think a total of 32 hours. And a test was given after each session. And then once you passed that, you went on to the next level. And so we were successful in getting the certification, and we got the affiliation with the laboratory. And so during the pandemic, there were a lot of buildings that shut down, and they were finding Legionella in the drinking water, which is hazardous to our health. So that prompted this to be really blown and to grow. So any building that had been sitting stagnant, you needed to check the water. And they really wanted it to do it for any places where they had seniors, any hospitals, anything pertaining to health care. It was mandated that they had their water tested because the people that had low immune systems, the last thing you need to do is drink some water that will attack your system. So that's how the water quality came in. And water conservation, that is basically conserving water by installing devices within your home or within your business that will reduce the consumption of water by reducing the gallons per minute by, you know, one time they had the 4 to 5 gallons for flush toilets. Now it's 1.2 and 1.3 gallons per flush it's very little water in a bowl, but it's enough to flush away the waste. There's restrictions on showerheads to lower the flow coming out of the showerhead faucets. So this is different devices that's been made that will help to consume the water and to conserve it in a much more fashionable way.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:08:03] And how do you spell the name of your business?
Adrienne Bennett [00:08:05] It's B as in brilliant E N K A R I and it's two family names put together, Bennett and Bukhari.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:08:16] Very nice. What year did you found the business.
Adrienne Bennett [00:08:20] We opened our doors in 2007. And start out with my oldest son, who is Evan Hashim Malik Bukhari, and then and the youngest son at that time was still in college. So once the youngest son graduated, then he primarily stepped in and he
and I are the ones that are pretty much running it. But the oldest son who's in Rhode Island, he's an engineer. Both my sons are engineers and he is working for the state of Rhode Island and the road commission, doing the bridges, the streets where they just had five inches of rain, I think, in like 2 minutes. Severe flooding in Rhode Island currently. So which all of the road work is halted right now because everything is under water. And this is something that happens consistently there. Roads being under water. So he decided to go somewhere where he can be consistently employed. My youngest son, AK Bennett. His name is Adrian Keith, but we call him AK. He's a graduate from Lawrence Tech with his Masters and he is our project manager is also he's also I see all of the company. So he oversees all the field work. And I used to be in the field because I am actually the master plumber and the plumbing contractor holds the license for the company. I've been in this industry for 40 years and I went through the five year apprenticeship. I was myself in an engineering program at Lawrence Tech and was convinced to leave that program and come into the plumbing apprenticeship program. I kind of swapped one for another, and this was back in the seventies.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:10:16] And what convinced you.
Adrienne Bennett [00:10:19] There was a gentleman that was at a Jimmy Carter get out to vote rally. His name is Gus Vowles. He's passed on now. And he said he saw me from across the room and looked like a woman to get something done. He approached me and
asked me if I want to make $50,000 a year. That was his opening line to me. And I said, this is in a seventies, $50,000. Is it legal? And he said, Yes, I said, doing what? He said being a plumber. At the time, there was this commercial on TV with Josephine the Plumber. You're too young to remember her, but she would have her overalls on, overalls on, and had this pipe wrench. And he says, Not quite. And it was a five year apprenticeship, and it was grueling and it was challenging. Um. But I've learned to say that the harder they were on me, the better I became and the stronger I became. And I told Mr. it must be something awfully damn good in you all and want me to find out about. I'll stick around just to piss you off. And here I am, 40 some years later still pissing them off.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:11:28] Good.
Adrienne Bennett [00:11:29] So that's how, that's how I got started in and that's how Benkari came about. My sons are the ones that selected the name, and we took it from there.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:11:42] So was it, you said they selected the name, was it also like kind of their push to open your own shop.
Adrienne Bennett [00:11:50] Pretty much because I, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and had a very severely bad relapse and was incapable of doing anything. I mean, literally, I was bedbound for five years and I went blind. I was wearing diapers. I needed physical therapy. It was very severe. But I overcame that as I did the
apprenticeship. And with that, my son going to engineering is amazing. They grew up with me being in the field and I do have a daughter. I can't miss my daughter, she's the middle child. That middle child they always felt they left out. But she's a, she's in finance. But they all grew up seeing me in the industry. And so they pretty much had the roots of it. And the youngest one, I drove him around with me to different job sites as I did the younger ones. The older ones. So they pretty much didn't have too much of a choice. My boys, as far as
which way they want to go, they knew they would be plumbers. So that's why they went the engineering route. We, collaborated with it, thought about it, and decided to do it. And here we are growing on a new construction site, as well as the service division side with water quality. So we're becoming very well well-rounded in the services that we're offering the community.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:13:33] How did it feel going from the field to owning your own business?
Adrienne Bennett [00:13:38] Well, I ended up leaving the field right after my apprenticeship. I was recruited by Detroit to be a plumbing inspector.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:13:46] Hmm.
Adrienne Bennett [00:13:47] Somehow they heard about me and Coleman Young was the mayor and being a female, I was a city resident and being African-American. And plus, my body was so beat up. It was this was before PVC. So all the piping was steel, copper, cast iron, concrete, ductile, heavy. And every job I was on was either industrial or it was medical. I ended up doing a lot of hospitals. They found that I was good with brazing and silver soddering, and it was just a touch I had. And the very last hospital I worked on as an apprentice, the foreman who's passed on now, Arthur Ruballard, god bless his soul, he gave me a chance. I did the water distribution as well as the Metro gas systems. I had three leaks in the whole hospital and that was just phenomenal. And this is all copper. And so from that, I had a touch that they felt I could do and it wouldn't be a lot of callbacks. You know, when she did it, the joints were solid and it was good. So that's pretty much when I left that I went into being a plumbing inspector. And I had to master the code book, which is my second Bible, because that's what the inspectors have to go on. We go back to the code and which is also part of the test you have to take to get your license. So I was out of the field back in the eighties. Now, I was still as a as an inspector. I was still working in the field, but I wasn't doing the physical work. It was basically walking the sites, checking the joints, making sure everything was done to the code. And if there was violations that need to be written, I wrote the violations. Ended up being a code enforcement officer, you know, taking a lot of people to court because they were not abiding by the code. So and then from there, Henry Ford Hospital was one of my clients as maybe an inspector. So I was told, instead of writing all these violations why don't you just come and fix them. So I went from being a plumbing inspector to being the master plumber in the construction manager at Henry Ford Hospital. And I was there until they decided to build a West the West annex, which is that addition off of West Grand Boulevard. You're going to find labor and delivery. You're going to find the NICU, you're going to find the cancer treatment. You're going to find dialysis, it was four stories. That was my baby for three years. And I was selected for that because I had a strong background in construction and I had my master's license. I had the history of being an inspector. So I knew codes. I knew how to get into a cold book and dissect it. And plus they offered me the right amount of money.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:17:06] That's always helpful.
Adrienne Bennett [00:17:06] That's always helpful. And I loved it, but I was in labor for three years with that building. And became very possessive with it. So I gradually that was my the ladder that I was climbing. And then, unfortunately, I got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis while I was there at Henry Ford. And I had to take medical leave.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:17:32] So you you had hinted on it earlier, but what was it like for you after you recovered from that relapse to get back on your feet and to get back out there doing doing the work you love?
Adrienne Bennett [00:17:43] I always see the phone call from our business manager. His name is Carlo Castellini with Plumbers Union Local 98. His uncle originally initiated me back in the seventies. And he called me and said he needed me. I said for what? He says, You're the only woman. The only one in Michigan, licensed master plumber in Michigan. I said, still? You know, all this time has passed. I think I got my Masters in 84. And now let's fast forward this, you know, to 2004, 2005, you know, and I'm like, wow. So it was a shock to me and. The first thing I thought of. I consider myself a spiritual person. I said, Well, you know how they treated me before. I can't go back to that again. And Carlos said it won't be that way anymore. And I said, okay. And decided to go back out. And we found a location to rent. And the challenges that we can was confronted with was getting insurance. One being in Detroit. Two being African-American, being a woman and just opening a brand new business, no insurance company would touch us. Even though I had all this experience, you know, I had my license. I was in good standing in the state of Michigan. My reputation was solid. They wouldn't touch me. And I ended up finding out about the SBA. And they were the ones that connected me with our first insurance company. And then we also had to get bonding, which is another challenge, and that was the SBA as well. So the SBA was very fundamental with helping us get our doors opened because you can't have a business without worker's compensation, you know, because we get people in the field working. So I had to have insurance, so I couldn't do anything until that was conquered. And so once we were able to get that, then we were able to start moving forward, establishing accounts, you know, where our suppliers go. We can't put pipe in without pipe. You can't put fittings in. You can't you know, you need you need tools and all of this. And we had to start buying, you know, vehicles. So that was just ramping up with the business. So I immediately switched because being at Henry Ford, I had learned a lot about the business side because that West Annex was basically my baby having to know the budget, you know, making sure the suppliers got paid during the waivers. It was just a process. Blueprints was nothing for me. That was a second hand. My laptop was my my third arm. So it was just. But unfortunately, during my five years, I had seizures. And a lot of there was a lot of brain damage. And I taught myself how to come back. So those was challenges on top of the fact of getting into a male dominated industry that I still have to deal with. But I'm not a quitter. I continue to move forward. And so the challenge was there. I've always been interested in a challenge. And Benkari being the only woman owned. And that was so shocking to me. I attended I was speaking at a conference in Seattle in 2015. And a lady approached me and it was Corey. And she was telling me I was the only one, I was the only one, I knew I was on the one in Michigan. This was the Women Builds Nations conference. It was over 2000 women there. The West Coast is so much more progressive than we are here. And I saw all these women, every every trade you can think of was there. And I was I cried maybe three or four times the time I was there. And she informed me because she was her family was a third generation plumbing company and she wanted to make it into a woman owned business. And she found as she was doing her research, there was only one woman. There was a license contractor through the the MCAA, which the Mechanical Contractors Association of America. And then I was, so MCAA, and I'm also still a member of the UA, which is a association
because I maintain my my license. I paid my dues and she only found one woman. And in North America. And so, I had no clue that I had no clue. And I'm standing there again in shock. Coming. All these women here, I met women, plumbers. They're meeting other women masters. I met a woman inspector. I mean, I'm meeting all these women that are in the plumbing industry and it didn't really dawn on me until she started talking to me and telling me this. And so this is documented. And so being the first black female licensed master plumber in North America. So MCAA and the UA has got it documented. So my children tell me I'm very humble and I feel I want to stay that way because I just I just got off and went to work every day. But that's what I did. I didn't do anything special. I showed up every day on time. I was the first one in a day and I was there early and I made them depend on me because they didn't want me there. I heard this, you know, for years, and I had to make myself valuable. And I chose to go this route instead of going to the engineer. Engineer was, engineer was still the same way. It was all white males in both. So I just chose the plumbing perspective over the engineer perspective. I should say discipline. But as I continue to grow I became stronger. I had to on a daily basis, I had to combat the damage that had been done with the seizures. I still had my challenges today. But the therapist told me everything you think you may have lost, you will regain back. And she says, Thank God I had a lot of education, you know, because I was in an engineering program. Math was, you know, a very strong suit of mine, chemistry biology. Those were classes I excelled in. And I was really nerdy. I mean, I remember telling my mother I could not have been more than maybe 12. Mama, you gotta quit buying Aerosol spray, you will destroy the ozone layer, she said. What the hell is an ozone layer? This is what I like 12 years old, and that's just kind of who I was. I sat at the dining room table with the with all the space shuttles gluing them together. It's probably glue I was sniffing that's probably got me messed up in the head, but that's how I was.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:25:49] Eight follow ups. SBA is a small business association. Adrienne Bennett [00:25:53] Yes.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:25:54] And then what does it mean to get bonded?
Adrienne Bennett [00:25:56] To get bonded, that's when you let's say you take on a job, a project, and if you don't perform there's a liability there. They want you to be bonded to cover the fact if you can't finish it they've got this insurance policy that was saying that we're going to cover the fact if you cannot complete this project. So basically this insurance as it's an insurance policy for your construction projects, that's about the most elementary way I can explain it for you.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:26:32] Perfectly fine. Okay. Thank you.
Adrienne Bennett [00:26:34] No problem.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:26:35] You said when you got the call from the local, he said he needed you back there, just as he needs you in the field.
Adrienne Bennett [00:26:40] He said he, he says I was the only female plumbing contractor licensed master plumber and woman. Woman. And he said, You're the only one. I need you.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:26:50] So he wanted you back. So, so, like the union could say.
Adrienne Bennett [00:26:56] To be a contractor and to put me back to work. Billy Wall-Winkel [00:26:59] Gotcha. And then.
Adrienne Bennett [00:27:01] And he's still around. He still holds that position. All right, Carl, I'm calling you out.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:27:09] Well, so you mentioned you, aside from the financing issues, getting insurance and things like that all set up. Was it important to you to open the business in Detroit?
Adrienne Bennett [00:27:18] Absolutely.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:27:19] Why?
Adrienne Bennett [00:27:20] Well, that's my roots. You know, the apprenticeship school was right off of 75 and it's the building has I think the building still stands but they've moved out to Troy, the training center now is in Troy and Union Hall is in Madison Heights lives a combined building around the corner. They had the union hall was upstairs, the training center on the first floor. So it's combined and yeah, that's where it all started and I went to Mumford High School and did some studying of my advanced classic Cass Tech. There was class they didn't offer at Mumford, so I took it at Cass. Um. And I live in Detroit. I was a triple threat and woman, minority, and Detroit resident and Coleman Young. Initially, my very first job was way out in Utica Township. I mean, way for me, it was like a two hour drive one way and Coleman Young decided to put in place exactly 122. And that's where this work was all being done, city and revitalization. And he wanted to make sure the city residents were employed. So he had to bring me from way out there because I was the only woman and brought me back into the city. And a lot of times it wasn't just me being the only woman. When I was way out there, I was the only black. And so it was challenging. It was challenging. But when I came back into the city, I was, there were still more blacks, but I was still potentially the only woman. I remember seeing a woman mason early in my apprenticeship. Can't remember too many other women that was in the trades back in the eighties and nineties. And now you've got a lot of female engineers, project managers, they're on the office side and they're getting more women. Electricians have got all these beautiful women as far as electricians. The plumbers, I think we still around maybe 25. But it's, we're still trying to recruit and I hope to set that example, that it's a very lucrative industry, you have no college debt and it's job security. You know, I have been in this for 40 years. I've never been unemployed. When I went from actually doing the physical work, then I learned the book part of it, and then I mastered the administrative part of it. So as I continued to grow, I just made sure I knew every aspect of it. So even now I just took a whole class, it's required when you get your license that you have to take a class. It's no different than doctors when they renew their license there are certain courses you have to take. And I'm happy we have that because now there's PVC, there's pipe out there that I had never touched. And I've got to learn how do you connect it? How do you hang it? You know, how do you support it? And so that's why it's necessary for me to still stay in school, which is what I do. And I'm also a member of the ASPE, which is a American Society of Plumbing Engineers. And that's a great organization, that's keeping me in touch and in tune, because when we have our classes, they bring in the manufacturers and suppliers and they have a show and tell of what's new, the products that are out there. So I can stay abreast of what's going on here. And all of my team members are required to stay in class as well because they have to keep their license up as well. So I hope I answered your question.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:31:11] You did. And a couple more I had on deck that worked out okay. Where in the city is your shop located?
Adrienne Bennett [00:31:18] We're located on West McNichols. Three blocks west of the South Hill Freeway on the south side of Street. But we're in a process of we are outgrowing that location, so we need to move to a larger location.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:31:35] Are you scouting them out?
Adrienne Bennett [00:31:37] You know, we've been looking and looking and looking and we're hoping it will be blessed.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:31:50] So do you, your focus on your shopping in Detroit. Do you also focus on hiring Detroiters?
Adrienne Bennett [00:31:56] Absolutely. Well, with the apprenticeship by us being in the union we have an apprenticeship program is similar to the one I went through and they are recruiting all people. And so that would be the nucleus I can go to and the surplus. So if we need a journeyman, if we need an apprentice, if we need a different level of apprentice, if we need a metal tradesperson, we go back to the union hall, see who's on the list, and let them know that we would like to get these people to fill slots that we may have vacancies in. So we are committed to and the STEP program is part of what Benkari is doing. Because with Michigan, such a train station. And which is what Ford Motor Company purchased. And that's going to be the Autonomy headquarters. And that was a commitment they also made. And Chrisman, who was the general contractor for that project, has also made their way forward. So it's all we're all it's a win win for everyone.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:33:06] So how has the business grown since you opened it in 2007?
Adrienne Bennett [00:33:10] When you say How has it grown, in what manner do you mean standpoint?
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:33:15] So you mentioned that you started with you and your eldest son and now he's in Rhode Island and you're working with younger son. How many employees have you grown from?
Adrienne Bennett [00:33:22] We have we've had as many as 25. And that includes our office staff and if you were to subtract three out of that everybody, it would be field personnel. We've got our controller, office manager and myself. Everybody else works in the field. So and again, we get our surplus from the union and we are in a process of growing. So we are trying to get and identify who wants to stick and stay with us. And I'm proud to say that everyone is on our current team tells me that this is the best place I've ever worked. That if they need something, they get it right away with. We're supportive, safety is number one. They're happy with the people they're working with. They're happy with the projects they're working on. And I say God is picking out the weeds. So those people who unfortunately are not, are not with us today they were eliminated for different reasons. And the ones that are there are the ones that want to stay, the they are sticking this thing.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:34:43] And how has it been setting up shops a few years before we get this building renaissance going on in the city?
Adrienne Bennett [00:34:50] Well, you know, when we did it, that was right before the collapse in '08. You know, everything the bottom kind of fell out of everything. And our very first contract was the people mover. And the cast iron pipe had matured out, and it was you know, it had it was mature. And there was some situations where they needed a little TLC. And so Benkari, that was our first major project was The People Mover. And at every station, there is plumbing. And throughout the tracks there's plumbing because when the ice melts, the water has to drain off. So and it's conveyed, you know. So that was the one thing they help us to to survive 08. And then from that, we've just continued to grow. Um, we, we're blessed some big projects. Like I mentioned, we'd be Little Caesars Arena. I just mentioned, the Ford, the Michigan Central Station. We worked on a theater 11 courthouse, Wayne State. We did the Anthony Wayne Apartments. Sugar Hill, which is a new ground up right across the V.A. hospital. And it's going to house veterans low income. We were the prime the prime plumbing contract on that project. Um. We are doing service and we are blessed to have and we still have the, um. The the people mover. We have Target, numerous stores and Target. We have Amcor, which does like banks and post offices. So as we're growing, as we're growing, we are having invitations of people calling us because of our reputation. We've got the most dynamic team out there. And we enjoy what,we're doing and Wayne Metro is a nonprofit organization that really we, was our starting point on our service division side. And what we do with that is that these are all residential homes in the tri county area. We go as far as Flint. And we go in and we improve the quality of life. If they got leaks in your pipe, we fix the leaks. If they have a faucet is not working, we repair and replace it. If the water will not divert from the tub to the shower we'll replace that or fix that. Outside hose valves will take out the old ones and put in the frostproof ones. Water heaters, we do gas piping. So we have been blessed. We've been doing that for five years with Wayne Metro and Ecoworks, and we've had some other other companies, Sojourner Truth, have asked us to come on and take care of their property for them. So there's numerous other, you know, that are well known in the city that Benkari is blessed to have to be able to go in and be honored to take care of their property with them.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:38:25] Yeah. That's quite the list. Congratulations again. Adrienne Bennett [00:38:30] Thank you.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:38:32] Has there been anything about your story or your business that you wanted to share with me but I didn't ask you about.
Adrienne Bennett [00:38:40] Well, first off, I still want to say I'm in awe of the historical museum selecting, Benkari and Adrienne Bennett to be a part of the hustle. I think you just heard how I'd been hustling, you know, having to have, I don't call it a disability because the one thing about my multiple sclerosis, it made me hone my skills. If I wasn't nerdy before, I'm really nerdy now. Everything has to be in its place. So, it's just an honor and it's a blessing to have been offered this opportunity. And, um, the lovely people I've met so far and, um, it's just, amazing.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:39:34] That's great to hear.
Adrienne Bennett [00:39:35] Yeah. But no, because I brought some things. Like, if you are in the Little Caesars Arena, they have in the suites area, they're showing you the construction, the progression shots. And one of the very last shots you'll see is Benkari. And there's Adrienne with her arms folded. It was freezing that they took that picture. Oh, my God. It was like -20 for a month. And they chose to do the photos that month. And so if
anybody's walking through and what I was told, it's going to be permanently up there. It's shows, as I say, from a hole in the ground up until the different layers. And they made the bowl and they did around the bowl. And there I am. Another one I'm very proud of is going to I'm going to be saying is the is the West Annex and the West Annex, that is was Henry Ford Hospital. This is just some shots when they set the tree on top of the building. And that was the team that was involved with the construction of the West Annex. And if you look, there's two women. There's a female engineer, and there's Adrienne right up front. And the rest are all the guys that was involved with getting out. And it went the first four stories. They took the elevator up another additional two floors and they went back and it went from 4 to 6 floors because they were planning on expanding more. And here this is the one that I am extremely proud of. And when they did this one, find it real quick to show you, where it is it. It's the train station. Oh, this one. Anyone who knows the history of Detroit, there was a Howard Johnson's on West Grand Boulevard and they imploded it. And look at me standing there were four foot wrench. And that's a picture back from when they imploded that. So it's just I'm going to show my legacy of how long I've been around. And, oh, this is this is the West Annex, this is it. This is to show the actual, this. They made this to show the actual building itself. And as I said, it's four floors and this is showing all floors. And this was $80 million, 285,000 square foot. Wow. So it increased Henry Ford to be a million square feet and it became a 1000 bed hospital. And there was the one thing I wanted to show you. Because Ford, they have just went above and beyond. This is the one. Yeah, this is the one. This is Crain's Automotive. And they. This is March 18th, 2019, and then cars got a whole page.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:43:19] Very nice.
Adrienne Bennett [00:43:21] And at the bottom it says, Ford Proud. And there we are. There we are with the blueprints, there's the building, and there's a closeup of me. So. So that's my legacy.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:43:37] That's fantastic.
Adrienne Bennett [00:43:39] Thank you.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:43:40] Three very quick questions and then now we're all done. When you hear the word hustle, what comes to mind?
Adrienne Bennett [00:43:49] It reminds me of what I've been doing for the last 40 some years. It was an industry that didn't want me. You know, it was the negativity. And I had to prove myself. And I did it by hustling. I did it by showing up early. By showing up every day. I did it by being as I'm walking out of the job site with my foreman. Any task I was given. I hustled to get it done and I made sure I did it right. I cannot not make any mistakes. Because I kind of felt there was someone looking over my shoulder waiting. So I had to make sure everything I did, I did it correctly. I dotted my eyes and I crossed my Ts. That's still that's my motto. That's what I still do. So I've been a hustler. Um, I hustled in school. Um, I, I, I enjoy things that other kids don't enjoy. Um, like, I sit in my dining room table, you know, putting together the Apollo space shuttles and stations and just sitting there. So I feel that that's just interwoven. You know, interweaving within myself is part of my DNA. I'm just a hustler.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:45:12] On that note, what comes to mind when you think of the word hustler?
Adrienne Bennett [00:45:16] Well, people normally think of as being negative, but I put a twist on it as positive. Anything negative about me. And I am a hustler.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:45:28] You know, now that you have the business up and running, you're the only master female master plumber.
Adrienne Bennett [00:45:33] No, there are there there is another one. There was a lady, I believe received her license in Michigan. Um, we. I have not met her. This is what I was told. So there's another lady out there.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:45:45] Awesome.
Adrienne Bennett [00:45:46] And there. There was another woman, just passed on. But so I'm not the only one. But as far as African American I'm the first.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:45:56] Gotcha. Yeah, uh, I did that to preface this question. Do you have a new side hustle going on?
Adrienne Bennett [00:46:04] I'm so busy with this. Basically what I'm doing now is I'm on committees and growing on that perspective because I feel that any way to make any changes, the one thing I need to have a change on is women porta johns designating women porta johns on construction sites. OSHA already has designated Porta johns, but they don't have any designated for women. And the reason I say that is because my history, it was dangerous, unsafe, unsanitary and those conditions are still around. One of our female apprentices was leaving a job site driving to go find a clean bathroom. And this has been within the last two years. So for me to make those kind of changes, I need to get on different committees. I need to get on different boards to see who can hear my voice, because there's a lot of boards out there still all men, and they have no clue because they've never had to be a female, never had to take care of themselves, you know, and you know, cause our bibs and to drop my bibs and you get urine. Okay. You've been in a porta john.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:47:29] Yeah.
Adrienne Bennett [00:47:29] And those that are listening to this have been imported. So I don't have to go on to any graphic description, but it's unsanitary. And so I feel that we need a lock on outside the door so we have a key to it. So nobody's in there waiting on us. And when we get in, there's a lock on the inside so they can't snatch a door open on us, and when we're in there, it's clean and we have what we need to take care of ourselves. So that's the one thing that I'm working with, State Senator Erica Guice and State Representative Lori Stone. We've been working together on trying to get this with OSHA and now with Samantha. Samantha is with the MCA Detroit, which is Mechanical Contractors Association, I'm on that board. And now Samantha will be signing papers tomorrow with OSHA. We're doing a partnership with OSHA. So now we'll be able to have someone at the table to be able to have the conversation about why we feel this is so important. We appreciate the designated ones you already have, but women need their own. We're not saying, you know we don't need them to be elaborate. We just need something that's safe and is sanitary for us to use. And those are basic necessities that we need. I unfortunately I can go and share this ended up having a blockage because it was unsafe for me to use them when I was an apprentice. There was nowhere for me to go as I share with you. I was driving 2 hours, I'm out in the country and I happened to find a bar and I had to buy a hamburger to use the bathroom. Which is fine, but in the process of me
being on that job site, I developed a blockage in my intestines and I had to seek medical treatment for it. So, again, there is reasons why women need this is not the way we want it because we just want it to be pretty now is because of the fact that for safe and sanitary conditions, basic necessity.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:49:44] Thank you for sharing that, and thank you for sharing everything you share with me today.
Adrienne Bennett [00:49:49] I hope I hit the points that you asked about. Billy Wall-Winkel [00:49:52] You did, you nailed it.
Adrienne Bennett [00:49:53] Okay. Thank you. Great job. It's been a pleasure. Billy Wall-Winkel [00:49:56] Yes, it has.
Adrienne Bennett [00:00:18] Okay. Adrienne is A-D-R-I-E-N-N-E, Bennett is B-E-N-N-E T-T.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:00:25] Thank you. Thank you. Start with, how did you first hear about the Hustle project?
Adrienne Bennett [00:00:32] I received an email that I had been nominated and really was blown away. And in the email it was stating what they wanted to do and what they were looking for. And they needed me to answer some additional questions. And so I proceeded. It told me that if I was selected or the business was selected, that we would be in a group. There would be an exhibit here at the Detroit Historical Museum and that they were going to select, I think, five to be in the permanent exhibit. And so I submitted my answers. I received a phone call on Friday and I must have said huh, five times because I said they said, Adrienne Bennett, I said yes this is Adrienne Bennett, how can I help you? well she said, I can't remember the lady's name that called me. She this is the Detroit Historical museum. We wanted you to be aware that your name was selected as being nominated. And you are an honoree. And we want to ask you, are you interested in being part of the exhibit? I'm like huh? Who, me? And I'm like, what? You know? And so she said I said, Can you repeat that again? Because I just couldn't believe it. So that's how it happened.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:01:58] Do you remember what it was like? Like telling people, like, how quickly did you share the news?
Adrienne Bennett [00:02:03] Well, that's just it. I was told not to. Oh, because we had to wait until they made the announcement, which was the event they had here. So I ended up sharing it with my partner, who also happens to be my youngest son. And he's like I'm the one who nominated you. I'm like, Oh, wow. Because I had no clue who nominated me for this museum. So and so I said I let him know that I had been so lucky. And at the time I was in the office. I have put the phone on speaker. So my office manager, she was working on something else. She usually answers the phone. And she happened to overhear the conversation. So she knew. So when we hung up, I sat there on the edge of the desk and I was like, I'm just in shock. You know, I said, Does this make me artifact? Does this mean. What does this mean to me in a museum? And I just gets sat in a daze. And so she heard the fact we couldn't tell anybody else. We get to keep to ourselves, too, after they make the announcement. So I was pretty good about that. But once I did tell people, there was one person I had to tell because the night of the event it was overlapping with a safety meeting for our company and it was going to be held in Troy and they were taking headcounts. And I'm like, I can't make it. And she says, Well, this is you know, we've got the man coming from Nationals who's going to be talking about all this safety information is so important, important that you be there, you know, pertinent as is. What can I share something with you guys? Swear to keep the secrecy. So she swore to secrecy when she was screaming on the phone. She goes, she's. She was over hyperventilating. I'm like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So she's like, the first person I told, but everybody I tell, since then, I got the same response.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:03:58] That's lovely.
Adrienne Bennett [00:03:58] Well, it is because no one ever thinks about being in a museum until after you're dead. Where have you done something major? You know, the Hall of Fame. You know, a museum. It's usually artifacts is something that you did, you know, and a museum is named after you. But the those people are, you know, already gone. So for me to smell my roses while I'm alive. That's what I know what this statement means now to be able to smell your roses while you're alive. Smell my flowers. Because that night I was just in awe, of the people and the turn out in and for this museum, to think of something of this magnitude, because as they told the story, this has never been done anywhere else in the country that day, like on the you know, on the cutting edge of doing this. And we were the first recipients of this so that made it even more special.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:04:56] That's great to hear.
Adrienne Bennett [00:04:57] Yeah.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:04:58] So let's talk a bit about why you were nominated. So what is the name of your business?
Adrienne Bennett [00:05:06] It's Benkari, LLC Plumbing, Water Quality and Conservation. And what that entails is they we're a plumbing company. But we also can test the water to make sure the water is safe, to cleanse for consumption, human consumption. And we have a laboratory that we're partnered with that will take the samples. This is sort of a special certification that our company had to go through through ASSE.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:05:40] Who's the ASSE.
Adrienne Bennett [00:05:41] That's the American Society sorry, the ASSE is the American Society of Sanitation Engineers. And so. There was a course that we had to take in Ann Arbor, and we sent our project manager and one of our journeymen plumbers. And it was. I think a total of 32 hours. And a test was given after each session. And then once you passed that, you went on to the next level. And so we were successful in getting the certification, and we got the affiliation with the laboratory. And so during the pandemic, there were a lot of buildings that shut down, and they were finding Legionella in the drinking water, which is hazardous to our health. So that prompted this to be really blown and to grow. So any building that had been sitting stagnant, you needed to check the water. And they really wanted it to do it for any places where they had seniors, any hospitals, anything pertaining to health care. It was mandated that they had their water tested because the people that had low immune systems, the last thing you need to do is drink some water that will attack your system. So that's how the water quality came in. And water conservation, that is basically conserving water by installing devices within your home or within your business that will reduce the consumption of water by reducing the gallons per minute by, you know, one time they had the 4 to 5 gallons for flush toilets. Now it's 1.2 and 1.3 gallons per flush it's very little water in a bowl, but it's enough to flush away the waste. There's restrictions on showerheads to lower the flow coming out of the showerhead faucets. So this is different devices that's been made that will help to consume the water and to conserve it in a much more fashionable way.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:08:03] And how do you spell the name of your business?
Adrienne Bennett [00:08:05] It's B as in brilliant E N K A R I and it's two family names put together, Bennett and Bukhari.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:08:16] Very nice. What year did you found the business.
Adrienne Bennett [00:08:20] We opened our doors in 2007. And start out with my oldest son, who is Evan Hashim Malik Bukhari, and then and the youngest son at that time was still in college. So once the youngest son graduated, then he primarily stepped in and he
and I are the ones that are pretty much running it. But the oldest son who's in Rhode Island, he's an engineer. Both my sons are engineers and he is working for the state of Rhode Island and the road commission, doing the bridges, the streets where they just had five inches of rain, I think, in like 2 minutes. Severe flooding in Rhode Island currently. So which all of the road work is halted right now because everything is under water. And this is something that happens consistently there. Roads being under water. So he decided to go somewhere where he can be consistently employed. My youngest son, AK Bennett. His name is Adrian Keith, but we call him AK. He's a graduate from Lawrence Tech with his Masters and he is our project manager is also he's also I see all of the company. So he oversees all the field work. And I used to be in the field because I am actually the master plumber and the plumbing contractor holds the license for the company. I've been in this industry for 40 years and I went through the five year apprenticeship. I was myself in an engineering program at Lawrence Tech and was convinced to leave that program and come into the plumbing apprenticeship program. I kind of swapped one for another, and this was back in the seventies.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:10:16] And what convinced you.
Adrienne Bennett [00:10:19] There was a gentleman that was at a Jimmy Carter get out to vote rally. His name is Gus Vowles. He's passed on now. And he said he saw me from across the room and looked like a woman to get something done. He approached me and
asked me if I want to make $50,000 a year. That was his opening line to me. And I said, this is in a seventies, $50,000. Is it legal? And he said, Yes, I said, doing what? He said being a plumber. At the time, there was this commercial on TV with Josephine the Plumber. You're too young to remember her, but she would have her overalls on, overalls on, and had this pipe wrench. And he says, Not quite. And it was a five year apprenticeship, and it was grueling and it was challenging. Um. But I've learned to say that the harder they were on me, the better I became and the stronger I became. And I told Mr. it must be something awfully damn good in you all and want me to find out about. I'll stick around just to piss you off. And here I am, 40 some years later still pissing them off.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:11:28] Good.
Adrienne Bennett [00:11:29] So that's how, that's how I got started in and that's how Benkari came about. My sons are the ones that selected the name, and we took it from there.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:11:42] So was it, you said they selected the name, was it also like kind of their push to open your own shop.
Adrienne Bennett [00:11:50] Pretty much because I, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and had a very severely bad relapse and was incapable of doing anything. I mean, literally, I was bedbound for five years and I went blind. I was wearing diapers. I needed physical therapy. It was very severe. But I overcame that as I did the
apprenticeship. And with that, my son going to engineering is amazing. They grew up with me being in the field and I do have a daughter. I can't miss my daughter, she's the middle child. That middle child they always felt they left out. But she's a, she's in finance. But they all grew up seeing me in the industry. And so they pretty much had the roots of it. And the youngest one, I drove him around with me to different job sites as I did the younger ones. The older ones. So they pretty much didn't have too much of a choice. My boys, as far as
which way they want to go, they knew they would be plumbers. So that's why they went the engineering route. We, collaborated with it, thought about it, and decided to do it. And here we are growing on a new construction site, as well as the service division side with water quality. So we're becoming very well well-rounded in the services that we're offering the community.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:13:33] How did it feel going from the field to owning your own business?
Adrienne Bennett [00:13:38] Well, I ended up leaving the field right after my apprenticeship. I was recruited by Detroit to be a plumbing inspector.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:13:46] Hmm.
Adrienne Bennett [00:13:47] Somehow they heard about me and Coleman Young was the mayor and being a female, I was a city resident and being African-American. And plus, my body was so beat up. It was this was before PVC. So all the piping was steel, copper, cast iron, concrete, ductile, heavy. And every job I was on was either industrial or it was medical. I ended up doing a lot of hospitals. They found that I was good with brazing and silver soddering, and it was just a touch I had. And the very last hospital I worked on as an apprentice, the foreman who's passed on now, Arthur Ruballard, god bless his soul, he gave me a chance. I did the water distribution as well as the Metro gas systems. I had three leaks in the whole hospital and that was just phenomenal. And this is all copper. And so from that, I had a touch that they felt I could do and it wouldn't be a lot of callbacks. You know, when she did it, the joints were solid and it was good. So that's pretty much when I left that I went into being a plumbing inspector. And I had to master the code book, which is my second Bible, because that's what the inspectors have to go on. We go back to the code and which is also part of the test you have to take to get your license. So I was out of the field back in the eighties. Now, I was still as a as an inspector. I was still working in the field, but I wasn't doing the physical work. It was basically walking the sites, checking the joints, making sure everything was done to the code. And if there was violations that need to be written, I wrote the violations. Ended up being a code enforcement officer, you know, taking a lot of people to court because they were not abiding by the code. So and then from there, Henry Ford Hospital was one of my clients as maybe an inspector. So I was told, instead of writing all these violations why don't you just come and fix them. So I went from being a plumbing inspector to being the master plumber in the construction manager at Henry Ford Hospital. And I was there until they decided to build a West the West annex, which is that addition off of West Grand Boulevard. You're going to find labor and delivery. You're going to find the NICU, you're going to find the cancer treatment. You're going to find dialysis, it was four stories. That was my baby for three years. And I was selected for that because I had a strong background in construction and I had my master's license. I had the history of being an inspector. So I knew codes. I knew how to get into a cold book and dissect it. And plus they offered me the right amount of money.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:17:06] That's always helpful.
Adrienne Bennett [00:17:06] That's always helpful. And I loved it, but I was in labor for three years with that building. And became very possessive with it. So I gradually that was my the ladder that I was climbing. And then, unfortunately, I got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis while I was there at Henry Ford. And I had to take medical leave.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:17:32] So you you had hinted on it earlier, but what was it like for you after you recovered from that relapse to get back on your feet and to get back out there doing doing the work you love?
Adrienne Bennett [00:17:43] I always see the phone call from our business manager. His name is Carlo Castellini with Plumbers Union Local 98. His uncle originally initiated me back in the seventies. And he called me and said he needed me. I said for what? He says, You're the only woman. The only one in Michigan, licensed master plumber in Michigan. I said, still? You know, all this time has passed. I think I got my Masters in 84. And now let's fast forward this, you know, to 2004, 2005, you know, and I'm like, wow. So it was a shock to me and. The first thing I thought of. I consider myself a spiritual person. I said, Well, you know how they treated me before. I can't go back to that again. And Carlos said it won't be that way anymore. And I said, okay. And decided to go back out. And we found a location to rent. And the challenges that we can was confronted with was getting insurance. One being in Detroit. Two being African-American, being a woman and just opening a brand new business, no insurance company would touch us. Even though I had all this experience, you know, I had my license. I was in good standing in the state of Michigan. My reputation was solid. They wouldn't touch me. And I ended up finding out about the SBA. And they were the ones that connected me with our first insurance company. And then we also had to get bonding, which is another challenge, and that was the SBA as well. So the SBA was very fundamental with helping us get our doors opened because you can't have a business without worker's compensation, you know, because we get people in the field working. So I had to have insurance, so I couldn't do anything until that was conquered. And so once we were able to get that, then we were able to start moving forward, establishing accounts, you know, where our suppliers go. We can't put pipe in without pipe. You can't put fittings in. You can't you know, you need you need tools and all of this. And we had to start buying, you know, vehicles. So that was just ramping up with the business. So I immediately switched because being at Henry Ford, I had learned a lot about the business side because that West Annex was basically my baby having to know the budget, you know, making sure the suppliers got paid during the waivers. It was just a process. Blueprints was nothing for me. That was a second hand. My laptop was my my third arm. So it was just. But unfortunately, during my five years, I had seizures. And a lot of there was a lot of brain damage. And I taught myself how to come back. So those was challenges on top of the fact of getting into a male dominated industry that I still have to deal with. But I'm not a quitter. I continue to move forward. And so the challenge was there. I've always been interested in a challenge. And Benkari being the only woman owned. And that was so shocking to me. I attended I was speaking at a conference in Seattle in 2015. And a lady approached me and it was Corey. And she was telling me I was the only one, I was the only one, I knew I was on the one in Michigan. This was the Women Builds Nations conference. It was over 2000 women there. The West Coast is so much more progressive than we are here. And I saw all these women, every every trade you can think of was there. And I was I cried maybe three or four times the time I was there. And she informed me because she was her family was a third generation plumbing company and she wanted to make it into a woman owned business. And she found as she was doing her research, there was only one woman. There was a license contractor through the the MCAA, which the Mechanical Contractors Association of America. And then I was, so MCAA, and I'm also still a member of the UA, which is a association
because I maintain my my license. I paid my dues and she only found one woman. And in North America. And so, I had no clue that I had no clue. And I'm standing there again in shock. Coming. All these women here, I met women, plumbers. They're meeting other women masters. I met a woman inspector. I mean, I'm meeting all these women that are in the plumbing industry and it didn't really dawn on me until she started talking to me and telling me this. And so this is documented. And so being the first black female licensed master plumber in North America. So MCAA and the UA has got it documented. So my children tell me I'm very humble and I feel I want to stay that way because I just I just got off and went to work every day. But that's what I did. I didn't do anything special. I showed up every day on time. I was the first one in a day and I was there early and I made them depend on me because they didn't want me there. I heard this, you know, for years, and I had to make myself valuable. And I chose to go this route instead of going to the engineer. Engineer was, engineer was still the same way. It was all white males in both. So I just chose the plumbing perspective over the engineer perspective. I should say discipline. But as I continue to grow I became stronger. I had to on a daily basis, I had to combat the damage that had been done with the seizures. I still had my challenges today. But the therapist told me everything you think you may have lost, you will regain back. And she says, Thank God I had a lot of education, you know, because I was in an engineering program. Math was, you know, a very strong suit of mine, chemistry biology. Those were classes I excelled in. And I was really nerdy. I mean, I remember telling my mother I could not have been more than maybe 12. Mama, you gotta quit buying Aerosol spray, you will destroy the ozone layer, she said. What the hell is an ozone layer? This is what I like 12 years old, and that's just kind of who I was. I sat at the dining room table with the with all the space shuttles gluing them together. It's probably glue I was sniffing that's probably got me messed up in the head, but that's how I was.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:25:49] Eight follow ups. SBA is a small business association. Adrienne Bennett [00:25:53] Yes.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:25:54] And then what does it mean to get bonded?
Adrienne Bennett [00:25:56] To get bonded, that's when you let's say you take on a job, a project, and if you don't perform there's a liability there. They want you to be bonded to cover the fact if you can't finish it they've got this insurance policy that was saying that we're going to cover the fact if you cannot complete this project. So basically this insurance as it's an insurance policy for your construction projects, that's about the most elementary way I can explain it for you.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:26:32] Perfectly fine. Okay. Thank you.
Adrienne Bennett [00:26:34] No problem.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:26:35] You said when you got the call from the local, he said he needed you back there, just as he needs you in the field.
Adrienne Bennett [00:26:40] He said he, he says I was the only female plumbing contractor licensed master plumber and woman. Woman. And he said, You're the only one. I need you.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:26:50] So he wanted you back. So, so, like the union could say.
Adrienne Bennett [00:26:56] To be a contractor and to put me back to work. Billy Wall-Winkel [00:26:59] Gotcha. And then.
Adrienne Bennett [00:27:01] And he's still around. He still holds that position. All right, Carl, I'm calling you out.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:27:09] Well, so you mentioned you, aside from the financing issues, getting insurance and things like that all set up. Was it important to you to open the business in Detroit?
Adrienne Bennett [00:27:18] Absolutely.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:27:19] Why?
Adrienne Bennett [00:27:20] Well, that's my roots. You know, the apprenticeship school was right off of 75 and it's the building has I think the building still stands but they've moved out to Troy, the training center now is in Troy and Union Hall is in Madison Heights lives a combined building around the corner. They had the union hall was upstairs, the training center on the first floor. So it's combined and yeah, that's where it all started and I went to Mumford High School and did some studying of my advanced classic Cass Tech. There was class they didn't offer at Mumford, so I took it at Cass. Um. And I live in Detroit. I was a triple threat and woman, minority, and Detroit resident and Coleman Young. Initially, my very first job was way out in Utica Township. I mean, way for me, it was like a two hour drive one way and Coleman Young decided to put in place exactly 122. And that's where this work was all being done, city and revitalization. And he wanted to make sure the city residents were employed. So he had to bring me from way out there because I was the only woman and brought me back into the city. And a lot of times it wasn't just me being the only woman. When I was way out there, I was the only black. And so it was challenging. It was challenging. But when I came back into the city, I was, there were still more blacks, but I was still potentially the only woman. I remember seeing a woman mason early in my apprenticeship. Can't remember too many other women that was in the trades back in the eighties and nineties. And now you've got a lot of female engineers, project managers, they're on the office side and they're getting more women. Electricians have got all these beautiful women as far as electricians. The plumbers, I think we still around maybe 25. But it's, we're still trying to recruit and I hope to set that example, that it's a very lucrative industry, you have no college debt and it's job security. You know, I have been in this for 40 years. I've never been unemployed. When I went from actually doing the physical work, then I learned the book part of it, and then I mastered the administrative part of it. So as I continued to grow, I just made sure I knew every aspect of it. So even now I just took a whole class, it's required when you get your license that you have to take a class. It's no different than doctors when they renew their license there are certain courses you have to take. And I'm happy we have that because now there's PVC, there's pipe out there that I had never touched. And I've got to learn how do you connect it? How do you hang it? You know, how do you support it? And so that's why it's necessary for me to still stay in school, which is what I do. And I'm also a member of the ASPE, which is a American Society of Plumbing Engineers. And that's a great organization, that's keeping me in touch and in tune, because when we have our classes, they bring in the manufacturers and suppliers and they have a show and tell of what's new, the products that are out there. So I can stay abreast of what's going on here. And all of my team members are required to stay in class as well because they have to keep their license up as well. So I hope I answered your question.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:31:11] You did. And a couple more I had on deck that worked out okay. Where in the city is your shop located?
Adrienne Bennett [00:31:18] We're located on West McNichols. Three blocks west of the South Hill Freeway on the south side of Street. But we're in a process of we are outgrowing that location, so we need to move to a larger location.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:31:35] Are you scouting them out?
Adrienne Bennett [00:31:37] You know, we've been looking and looking and looking and we're hoping it will be blessed.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:31:50] So do you, your focus on your shopping in Detroit. Do you also focus on hiring Detroiters?
Adrienne Bennett [00:31:56] Absolutely. Well, with the apprenticeship by us being in the union we have an apprenticeship program is similar to the one I went through and they are recruiting all people. And so that would be the nucleus I can go to and the surplus. So if we need a journeyman, if we need an apprentice, if we need a different level of apprentice, if we need a metal tradesperson, we go back to the union hall, see who's on the list, and let them know that we would like to get these people to fill slots that we may have vacancies in. So we are committed to and the STEP program is part of what Benkari is doing. Because with Michigan, such a train station. And which is what Ford Motor Company purchased. And that's going to be the Autonomy headquarters. And that was a commitment they also made. And Chrisman, who was the general contractor for that project, has also made their way forward. So it's all we're all it's a win win for everyone.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:33:06] So how has the business grown since you opened it in 2007?
Adrienne Bennett [00:33:10] When you say How has it grown, in what manner do you mean standpoint?
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:33:15] So you mentioned that you started with you and your eldest son and now he's in Rhode Island and you're working with younger son. How many employees have you grown from?
Adrienne Bennett [00:33:22] We have we've had as many as 25. And that includes our office staff and if you were to subtract three out of that everybody, it would be field personnel. We've got our controller, office manager and myself. Everybody else works in the field. So and again, we get our surplus from the union and we are in a process of growing. So we are trying to get and identify who wants to stick and stay with us. And I'm proud to say that everyone is on our current team tells me that this is the best place I've ever worked. That if they need something, they get it right away with. We're supportive, safety is number one. They're happy with the people they're working with. They're happy with the projects they're working on. And I say God is picking out the weeds. So those people who unfortunately are not, are not with us today they were eliminated for different reasons. And the ones that are there are the ones that want to stay, the they are sticking this thing.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:34:43] And how has it been setting up shops a few years before we get this building renaissance going on in the city?
Adrienne Bennett [00:34:50] Well, you know, when we did it, that was right before the collapse in '08. You know, everything the bottom kind of fell out of everything. And our very first contract was the people mover. And the cast iron pipe had matured out, and it was you know, it had it was mature. And there was some situations where they needed a little TLC. And so Benkari, that was our first major project was The People Mover. And at every station, there is plumbing. And throughout the tracks there's plumbing because when the ice melts, the water has to drain off. So and it's conveyed, you know. So that was the one thing they help us to to survive 08. And then from that, we've just continued to grow. Um, we, we're blessed some big projects. Like I mentioned, we'd be Little Caesars Arena. I just mentioned, the Ford, the Michigan Central Station. We worked on a theater 11 courthouse, Wayne State. We did the Anthony Wayne Apartments. Sugar Hill, which is a new ground up right across the V.A. hospital. And it's going to house veterans low income. We were the prime the prime plumbing contract on that project. Um. We are doing service and we are blessed to have and we still have the, um. The the people mover. We have Target, numerous stores and Target. We have Amcor, which does like banks and post offices. So as we're growing, as we're growing, we are having invitations of people calling us because of our reputation. We've got the most dynamic team out there. And we enjoy what,we're doing and Wayne Metro is a nonprofit organization that really we, was our starting point on our service division side. And what we do with that is that these are all residential homes in the tri county area. We go as far as Flint. And we go in and we improve the quality of life. If they got leaks in your pipe, we fix the leaks. If they have a faucet is not working, we repair and replace it. If the water will not divert from the tub to the shower we'll replace that or fix that. Outside hose valves will take out the old ones and put in the frostproof ones. Water heaters, we do gas piping. So we have been blessed. We've been doing that for five years with Wayne Metro and Ecoworks, and we've had some other other companies, Sojourner Truth, have asked us to come on and take care of their property for them. So there's numerous other, you know, that are well known in the city that Benkari is blessed to have to be able to go in and be honored to take care of their property with them.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:38:25] Yeah. That's quite the list. Congratulations again. Adrienne Bennett [00:38:30] Thank you.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:38:32] Has there been anything about your story or your business that you wanted to share with me but I didn't ask you about.
Adrienne Bennett [00:38:40] Well, first off, I still want to say I'm in awe of the historical museum selecting, Benkari and Adrienne Bennett to be a part of the hustle. I think you just heard how I'd been hustling, you know, having to have, I don't call it a disability because the one thing about my multiple sclerosis, it made me hone my skills. If I wasn't nerdy before, I'm really nerdy now. Everything has to be in its place. So, it's just an honor and it's a blessing to have been offered this opportunity. And, um, the lovely people I've met so far and, um, it's just, amazing.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:39:34] That's great to hear.
Adrienne Bennett [00:39:35] Yeah. But no, because I brought some things. Like, if you are in the Little Caesars Arena, they have in the suites area, they're showing you the construction, the progression shots. And one of the very last shots you'll see is Benkari. And there's Adrienne with her arms folded. It was freezing that they took that picture. Oh, my God. It was like -20 for a month. And they chose to do the photos that month. And so if
anybody's walking through and what I was told, it's going to be permanently up there. It's shows, as I say, from a hole in the ground up until the different layers. And they made the bowl and they did around the bowl. And there I am. Another one I'm very proud of is going to I'm going to be saying is the is the West Annex and the West Annex, that is was Henry Ford Hospital. This is just some shots when they set the tree on top of the building. And that was the team that was involved with the construction of the West Annex. And if you look, there's two women. There's a female engineer, and there's Adrienne right up front. And the rest are all the guys that was involved with getting out. And it went the first four stories. They took the elevator up another additional two floors and they went back and it went from 4 to 6 floors because they were planning on expanding more. And here this is the one that I am extremely proud of. And when they did this one, find it real quick to show you, where it is it. It's the train station. Oh, this one. Anyone who knows the history of Detroit, there was a Howard Johnson's on West Grand Boulevard and they imploded it. And look at me standing there were four foot wrench. And that's a picture back from when they imploded that. So it's just I'm going to show my legacy of how long I've been around. And, oh, this is this is the West Annex, this is it. This is to show the actual, this. They made this to show the actual building itself. And as I said, it's four floors and this is showing all floors. And this was $80 million, 285,000 square foot. Wow. So it increased Henry Ford to be a million square feet and it became a 1000 bed hospital. And there was the one thing I wanted to show you. Because Ford, they have just went above and beyond. This is the one. Yeah, this is the one. This is Crain's Automotive. And they. This is March 18th, 2019, and then cars got a whole page.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:43:19] Very nice.
Adrienne Bennett [00:43:21] And at the bottom it says, Ford Proud. And there we are. There we are with the blueprints, there's the building, and there's a closeup of me. So. So that's my legacy.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:43:37] That's fantastic.
Adrienne Bennett [00:43:39] Thank you.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:43:40] Three very quick questions and then now we're all done. When you hear the word hustle, what comes to mind?
Adrienne Bennett [00:43:49] It reminds me of what I've been doing for the last 40 some years. It was an industry that didn't want me. You know, it was the negativity. And I had to prove myself. And I did it by hustling. I did it by showing up early. By showing up every day. I did it by being as I'm walking out of the job site with my foreman. Any task I was given. I hustled to get it done and I made sure I did it right. I cannot not make any mistakes. Because I kind of felt there was someone looking over my shoulder waiting. So I had to make sure everything I did, I did it correctly. I dotted my eyes and I crossed my Ts. That's still that's my motto. That's what I still do. So I've been a hustler. Um, I hustled in school. Um, I, I, I enjoy things that other kids don't enjoy. Um, like, I sit in my dining room table, you know, putting together the Apollo space shuttles and stations and just sitting there. So I feel that that's just interwoven. You know, interweaving within myself is part of my DNA. I'm just a hustler.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:45:12] On that note, what comes to mind when you think of the word hustler?
Adrienne Bennett [00:45:16] Well, people normally think of as being negative, but I put a twist on it as positive. Anything negative about me. And I am a hustler.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:45:28] You know, now that you have the business up and running, you're the only master female master plumber.
Adrienne Bennett [00:45:33] No, there are there there is another one. There was a lady, I believe received her license in Michigan. Um, we. I have not met her. This is what I was told. So there's another lady out there.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:45:45] Awesome.
Adrienne Bennett [00:45:46] And there. There was another woman, just passed on. But so I'm not the only one. But as far as African American I'm the first.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:45:56] Gotcha. Yeah, uh, I did that to preface this question. Do you have a new side hustle going on?
Adrienne Bennett [00:46:04] I'm so busy with this. Basically what I'm doing now is I'm on committees and growing on that perspective because I feel that any way to make any changes, the one thing I need to have a change on is women porta johns designating women porta johns on construction sites. OSHA already has designated Porta johns, but they don't have any designated for women. And the reason I say that is because my history, it was dangerous, unsafe, unsanitary and those conditions are still around. One of our female apprentices was leaving a job site driving to go find a clean bathroom. And this has been within the last two years. So for me to make those kind of changes, I need to get on different committees. I need to get on different boards to see who can hear my voice, because there's a lot of boards out there still all men, and they have no clue because they've never had to be a female, never had to take care of themselves, you know, and you know, cause our bibs and to drop my bibs and you get urine. Okay. You've been in a porta john.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:47:29] Yeah.
Adrienne Bennett [00:47:29] And those that are listening to this have been imported. So I don't have to go on to any graphic description, but it's unsanitary. And so I feel that we need a lock on outside the door so we have a key to it. So nobody's in there waiting on us. And when we get in, there's a lock on the inside so they can't snatch a door open on us, and when we're in there, it's clean and we have what we need to take care of ourselves. So that's the one thing that I'm working with, State Senator Erica Guice and State Representative Lori Stone. We've been working together on trying to get this with OSHA and now with Samantha. Samantha is with the MCA Detroit, which is Mechanical Contractors Association, I'm on that board. And now Samantha will be signing papers tomorrow with OSHA. We're doing a partnership with OSHA. So now we'll be able to have someone at the table to be able to have the conversation about why we feel this is so important. We appreciate the designated ones you already have, but women need their own. We're not saying, you know we don't need them to be elaborate. We just need something that's safe and is sanitary for us to use. And those are basic necessities that we need. I unfortunately I can go and share this ended up having a blockage because it was unsafe for me to use them when I was an apprentice. There was nowhere for me to go as I share with you. I was driving 2 hours, I'm out in the country and I happened to find a bar and I had to buy a hamburger to use the bathroom. Which is fine, but in the process of me
being on that job site, I developed a blockage in my intestines and I had to seek medical treatment for it. So, again, there is reasons why women need this is not the way we want it because we just want it to be pretty now is because of the fact that for safe and sanitary conditions, basic necessity.
Billy Wall-Winkel [00:49:44] Thank you for sharing that, and thank you for sharing everything you share with me today.
Adrienne Bennett [00:49:49] I hope I hit the points that you asked about. Billy Wall-Winkel [00:49:52] You did, you nailed it.
Adrienne Bennett [00:49:53] Okay. Thank you. Great job. It's been a pleasure. Billy Wall-Winkel [00:49:56] Yes, it has.
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“Adrienne Bennett, September 7th, 2022,” Detroit Historical Society Oral History Archive, accessed May 18, 2024, https://oralhistory.detroithistorical.org/items/show/823.