Long before they started their business together, Kailen Dufrene and Gage Fleming began learning the ins and outs of their trade at Hahnville High School – and recently, they found a way to give back to their alma mater.
In 2023 Fleming and Dufrene opened a full-service welding and fabrication shop, Graywood Fabrications, in Raceland. And after learning their alma mater was on the lookout for a new grill for Friday night tailgating before football games and other events, they got to work on a brand new custom grill for the school, which they recently completed and donated to the school. It’ll be put to great use for the very first time before this Friday night’s Hahnville/Central Lafourche game at Tiger Stadium.
Hahnville welding teacher Chris Henning put HHS assistant principal Shawn Heiden in contact with Fleming, and things got rolling from there.
“We were spit-balling an idea, and they took it and ran with it,” Heiden said. “They said, ‘We can do this, we can do that.’ I brought an old trailer that I had and they worked their magic with it.”
Heiden said beyond football games, it’s going to be a big plus for upcoming golf tournament benefits for the school’s baseball and softball programs, as well as simply being there for general usage.
“We thought it would be pretty cool … kind of our goal, we wanted to give back something that would be long-lasting that could be here for years and years. And maybe one day our children one day will come here and be able to see something we created,” Fleming said.
He added that Henning has made a very positive impact on his life.
“I started right here in high school in his welding class,” Fleming said. “When I went to welding school, he was there for me as well, he helped me with some jobs and just a lot of things like that. So it’s just great to be able to repay some of these guys who helped me grow.”
Heiden said that when he walked into their shop for the first time, it had an impact on him.
“It just overcame me that these two young guys are following their dreams and chasing something they wanted to do,” Heiden said. “They took something that they loved, something they learned about here in St. Charles Parish, and have been able to turn it into a business.
“Their time is valuable, and they love this parish, they love this school, and it’s so cool that they took some of that time and energy and their expertise and used it to give back. It’s something where we were able to give to them as students here and now they’re giving back to us years later.”
Dufrene and Fleming each received the Lee Vial Memorial Scholarship as Hahnville students, doing so eight years apart.
Said Dufrene, “It’s kind of full circle for us.”
While the two are fellow HHS alumni, they did not attend at the same time – they met working together at another shop.
“After a couple years of working together, we just took it from there,” Dufrene said.” I knew another shop that was selling some equipment, so I went just looking to buy a little bit. I ended up getting a lot more.”
It turned out to be the catalyst for taking a big step.
“We started talking about it – do we go into business together? A few months later, we bought a shop. And then we had to figure out how to own a shop,” Dufrene said.
Added Fleming, “We learned that we thought similarly in a lot of ways … we ended up going in together. We had this big empty space that soon got cluttered with a lot of equipment. Jobs came in slow between his resources and my resources. As it kind of grew, we figured out our roles, and we work together to create something. It’s growing. It’s getting to where we kind of always dreamed. We just had to put it together.”
Dufrene said the process of building a business from the ground up has been enjoyable – and quite an education.
“A lot of times, we put our heads together and say, ‘OK, let’s figure this out.’ How do we keep growing, how do we tackle this or that,” Dufrene said.
Said Fleming, “And that’s the part I like the most. My dream was always to grow something from the bottom, build it up, and seeing our ideas come to fruition is really exciting to me.”
