Joshua Davila sat on a newly installed bleacher and looked out over the Belle Isle baseball field. Fresh paint, new dugouts, and a smoothed outfield stretched across a diamond that Detroit kids have called their own for more than a century.

When Ford and Carhartt offered to help restore the field earlier this year, the project needed a construction partner to run the job. That partner was Premier Group Associates, a Detroit-based construction company that already does lawn work and sign installation on Belle Isle.

Davila, the company’s vice president of construction, was tapped to supervise his own crew and coordinate the volunteers from Ford and Carhartt, who would work together to bring the field back to its former glory.

For Davila, it truly was an opportunity to put the lessons of teamwork into practice. He grew up playing basketball and thrived on the discipline and accountability he found in youth sports. He came to see those same values in the trades, and it’s one of the reasons he was drawn to the profession.

“In construction, you’ve got to depend on a lot of people,” he said.

Ford and Carhartt volunteers assembled the bleachers, sanded and painted poles, and pulled weeds across the grounds. They worked alongside Premier's crews as the work moved from one task to the next. The group was as diverse as the community it served, but everyone shared a desire to save a baseball field used by more than a dozen community organizations.

That sense of shared responsibility extends well beyond one job site. Davila and his crew represent the Essential Economy, the roughly 95 million workers in farming, construction, transportation, and manufacturing who keep American communities running. Premier's work reflects that range. “We do everything from commercial lawn care and snow removal to site and construction work around the city for parks,” Davila said.

These essential workers rely on durable tools and equipment to get the job done. Many of them depend on Ford and Carhartt, two brands that have been found together on job sites across the country for more than a century. The F-150 Carhartt Edition and Super Duty Carhartt Edition trucks pay tribute to these unsung heroes, but the partnership is grounded in real work.

On Belle Isle, Premier’s fleet of Ford F-550s carried the project from one stage to the next. The trucks hauled away all the concrete demolished from the old dugouts, then brought in the cinderblocks, the new benches, and the heavy machinery, including skid steers that moved materials around the site. “Our guys are pretty rough on the trucks,” Davila said. “We're loading concrete in and out, slamming doors. It's just a lot of dirt.”

For the people who built the field, the payoff comes when the work is finished and the kids are back on the diamond. “The biggest reward is seeing the smiles on the faces of young ball players,” Davila said.

Today, the baseball field on Belle Isle is ready for the next generation of players. And every crack of the bat is the sound of history coming back to life.

Holbrook Mohr is a contributing writer from Brandon, Mississippi.