BANGOR – Suzanne Graves-Hall says it was “baptism by fire” when she landed a job driving a dump truck at a major road-building site in Aurora last summer.

“I had the engine retarders on constantly. I was hauling huge loads, working around bigger equipment than I’d ever seen before,” she said. She made plenty of mistakes. But her supervisors at Sargent & Sargent Construction Inc. in Hampden were patient, and the determined 42-year-old single mother stuck with it.

She mastered the dump truck and switched to carrying water in a tanker truck, spraying it onto the emerging roadbed to keep the dust down. The Aurora roadbed project was done in October, and the crew moved on to do site work at a major Brewer building project. By the time the construction season ended in December and she was laid off for the winter, Graves-Hall was an old hand.

Heavy construction wasn’t exactly part of her life plan, but Graves-Hall says she has been lucky. Her new job skills have jumped her income substantially, but the boost to her self-confidence has been even more significant.

“I had never even considered going this route,” she said. “I didn’t realize I had it in me.”

Suzanne Graves-Hall is one of more than 800 Maine women who have taken advantage of Women Unlimited, a 15-year-old Augusta-based program that prepares women to enter blue-collar, male-dominated fields. The program has offered many opportunities, but its mainstay is preparation for Maine’s Class B commercial driver’s license, which allows the bearer to drive essentially any commercial vehicle except the 18-wheeler “big rigs.”

In 1998, Graves-Hall was emerging from a difficult, long-term relationship, working on and off at low-paying jobs, when a friend suggested she might be able to get a better-paying job working on the gas pipeline project then burrowing its way through the Bangor area. She agreed to check out Women Unlimited as a way to qualify for a job on the project.

Ten women signed up for the CDL class in Bangor that year. It was a life-changing experience, Graves-Hall said. In addition to learning the rules and regulations and nuts and bolts of the Class B license, the women in the group learned basic math and English skills, conflict resolution and the essentials of job hunting.

“They really got our brains working and showed us what we could do,” she said. “They were marvelous and patient teachers. I could never have done this without the support of Women Unlimited.”

Bolstered by her success in the CDL class and a newfound affinity for mathematics, Graves-Hall went on to earn an associate degree in computer aided design from Eastern Maine Technical College. But, unable to find the kind of pre-engineering work she had envisioned, after graduating she wound up working for low wages again in a warehouse. (She also has maintained a part-time broadcasting career: You may know her better as “Lisa Cole,” weekend country music DJ on FM 104.7, ” The Bear.”)

A call from a friend last spring alerted her to the truck driving position at Sargent & Sargent. The hours are long and the work is hard, but the pay is pretty good – about $10 an hour with regular overtime – and she enjoys her colleagues. Everyone has been patient and supportive, she said.

“I was a little intimidated at first, but that was coming from me and not from them.”

She still hopes to move into civil engineering and she keeps her ears open to learn everything she can about this new world of road construction and earthwork. For the time being, she said, life is good.

Heavy construction is “the last bastion” of traditional men’s work, according to Women Unlimited founder Dale McCormick – now the state treasurer, but she says the industry can ill afford to protect that status.

For one thing, state and federal laws mandate that large-scale contractors include women and minorities in their work force, at least in a training capacity.

Second, McCormick said, the trades work force is graying, retiring faster than young people are entering. And, “if every white male in the country went into the trades today, there still wouldn’t be enough people to build the roads and bridges we need,” she said. Women, trained and proficient, represent a logical extension of the labor pool.

Finally, “there is growing recognition that American diversity is the strength of our economy.” Women and nonwhites soon will make up a major part of the work force and will be supporting the Social Security system, McCormick said.

“If we want to be supported in our old age, then we should be giving young people a leg up to the good jobs.”

This winter, 26 Bangor-area women are on the road to good jobs and better lives, courtesy of Women Unlimited. Starting in February, the organization again will offer its CDL class, including 42 hours of classroom training at United Technologies Center in Bangor and 30 hours of behind-the-wheel time at the Maine Turnpike Authority Annex in West Gardiner.

Tuition is $1,500, but WU Executive Director Mary Lake said low-income women may well be eligible for tuition assistance from the Department of Labor, the Department of Human Services and other sources. Lake credits the Maine Department of Transportation and the Department of Education for providing funding and practical assistance to the program, and says Maine employers have been incredibly supportive.

“Most employers of any size realize that without women in the work force they probably won’t have a work force in a few years,” she said.

Heidi Young, 25, a single mother in Canaan, will be in the front row of the February class. Young spent last summer as a laborer for H.E. Sargent in Stillwater, working with concrete and rebar. Now, like Graves-Hall, she’s laid off for the winter and collecting unemployment, but when she was working she was bringing down about $10 an hour. Having her Class B won’t make her a lot more money; she’s mostly looking to expand her options within the construction field. In addition to getting her CDL, she wants training and experience in supervision and estimating.

Young said she has an affinity for construction work; her father is a welder and she has developed a fondness for the hardworking world of the construction trades.

“I like the atmosphere. I like to work outdoors. I like hands-on work,” she said. “I don’t like to stand around doing nothing.”

Graves-Hall offers her words of encouragement.

“Stick with it,” she said. “If something gets in your way, work through it. If you just take the attitude that you can do this, you will succeed.”

For information on Women Unlimited, call 623-7576.