Celebrating women’s contributions to the rental industry

Mar. 06, 2022

A group of women attending the 1968 ARA Convention

Women have played a vital role in both the establishment and growth of the equipment and event rental industry. With March being Women’s History Month and March 8 International Women’s Day, this is an opportune time to take a look at how some women have made their mark on the industry and are continuing to forge a stronger voice for all women in the industry — those who are in the midst of their careers and those who are just getting started.

Women have always been part of the industry. In the early years, many women joined their husbands in establishing family-operated rental businesses. Over the years, more and more women have started moving up the management ladder of both family operations and national companies. Today, many have even broken the glass ceiling and are serving as presidents and CEOs of their companies.

Pam McKenney

Pam McKenney is noted for her trailblazing efforts on behalf of women in the industry. She, along with her husband, Joe, started The Rent-All Shops in Columbia, S.C., in 1972. After joining the American Rental Association (ARA), Pam attended one of ARA’s conventions. Soon, she and Joe became involved in ARA’s local chapter. Pam’s volunteer efforts were not only noticed, but they also wound up landing her the position as ARA’s Region Three director. During her tenure, she began the first Young Executives Program. With the encouragement of others, she eventually ran for president of the ARA board. In 1997 she was elected to the role — the first woman to hold that office. Her volunteer efforts and influence didn’t stop there. In 2001, she became the chair of the ARA Foundation board of trustees.

Beth Hoff Blackmer, president, Aspen Rent-All, Basalt, Colo., who serves as chair of the ARA board and ARA’s Women in Rental Committee, remembers that when she was elected Region Seven director, she became the only woman on the ARA board since the only other woman on the board had just finished her term.

“I looked around the room of all the men and said, ‘Can you all work harder to get some women on this board?’ They agreed and we went from one to six over the next number of years. That was fantastic as they recognized that this was a good thing for everyone in the industry,” she says.

Beth Hoff Blackmer

Ever since joining the board as a regional director, Hoff Blackmer has been pushing for a group that was dedicated to women. She was joined in that call by then-Region Six Director Rachel O’Brien, president, J & F Reddy Rents, St. Louis Park, Minn., who served as 2021 chair of the ARA Insurance board.

“Beth and I sparked the idea that there was a need, and then we got more women involved who echoed that call,” O’Brien says.

When Hoff Blackmer was elected to serve as ARA board president in 2020, she championed that effort. “When we talked with Tony [Conant, ARA CEO] about it, he was really excited to look further into it. I really thank the ARA for embracing that,” Hoff Blackmer says.

O’Brien agrees. “It was so wonderful that ARA wanted to explore a committee or group for women. We all have our stories of how we have been treated by customers and vendors. You feel isolated and alone and you feel like you are the only one having those experiences,” she says.

Rachel O’Brien

ARA started digging into the issue. “In 2018, we conducted a survey of women in the industry,” says Debby Schaller, ARA vice president of marketing. What was found was quite impressive. “There were more than 7,400 women engaged in the industry, women in executive management positions represented 17 percent of ARA general member locations, and 27 percent of show attendees in 2018 were women,” she says.

ARA shared those results during the first Women in Rental Breakfast at The ARA Show™ 2019. “At the sold-out breakfast, Tony talked through the results of the survey and ARA’s intention of going forward with developing a committee and putting more structure around it,” Schaller says.

“When ARA dived into how many women are in the industry, I was surprised,” O’Brien says. “It was way more than what I thought. I was thinking there might be only five of us, but, no, there are a lot more women who own their businesses, either taking over from their parents or starting from scratch because they worked for a rental company and then started their own companies,” she says.

Women in Rental Breakfast at The ARA Show 2019

That first breakfast meeting spawned the ARA Women in Rental Committee, with a mission to “engage and increase the number of women in the industry by providing empowerment, networking, mentorship and educational opportunities,” says Schaller, who has served as ARA’s liaison to the committee.

That event was just the beginning. “Between the LinkedIn and Facebook pages, we now have more than 1,000 women involved,” Hoff Blackmer says. “This past January, we held our first in-person Women in Rental Summit in San Antonio, which also sold out. Everyone enjoyed that — dedicated time for networking and education that lifted women up in the industry. We also tied it in with the ARA Foundation/Toro Company Foundation’s Community Impact Program. We had a strong involvement from our group in that service project, too, which was great.”

Women in Rental Summit

“The San Antonio summit was so fantastic,” O’Brien says. “We had a packed room and great speakers. The networking, the education and the whole event were great. I can’t wait for the next one.”

The Women in Rental initiative has tapped into a need in the industry, notes Hoff Blackmer and O’Brien, who are the first women serving as chairs of the ARA board and ARA Insurance board at the same time. They know the group will continue to grow, offering even more professional development, mentoring and networking opportunities for women in the industry.

However, it is not just through this group that women are letting their voices be heard. They are active volunteers, serving at both the state and national levels. Take a look:

Board Chair:

• Beth Hoff Blackmer, Aspen Rent-All, Basalt, Colo.

Regional Directors:

Region One

• Julie Creedon-Linton, CERP, Creedon & Co., Worcester, Mass.

Region Ten

• Angie Venekamp, Rental Network, Squamish, British Columbia, Canada

ARA Equipment Rental Shared Interest Group (SIG):

• Mary Crosslin, Alert Rental Software, Colorado Springs, Colo.
• Carol Frederick, Tel-Power Tool & Equip. Rental, Altoona, Pa.
• Carol Fontanez, Jamco, Sanford, Fla.
• Michelle Nelson, MK Equipment Corp., Honolulu

ARA Event Rental SIG:

• Delores Crum, CERP, Premiere Events, Austin, Texas — SIG chair
• Karen Ackerman, CERP, Special Event Rentals, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
• Joelyn Caprine, CERP, 24/7 Events, Valencia, Calif.
• Bridget Doherty, Encore Events Rentals, Petaluma, Calif.
• Amanda Gray, Georgia Expo Manufacturing Corp., Suwanee, Ga.
• Jane Hutton, Arena Americas, Oak Creek, Wis.

ARA Equipment Rental Advocacy Workgroup:

• Trish Southard, D.J.’s Rentals & Sales, Elk City, Okla.

ARA Event Rental Advocacy Workgroup:

• Sara Blood, Blood’s Catering & Party Rentals, White River Junction, Vt.
• Barbara Bown Wyatt, Butler Rents, Glendale, Colo.
• Delores Crum, CERP, Premiere Events, Austin, Texas
• Jane Hutton, Arena Americas, Oak Creek, Wis.

Exhibitor Advisory Council

• Mary Crosslin, Alert Rental Software, Colorado Springs, Colo.
• Carol Lee Cundey, CERP, Eureka! The Tent Co., Binghamton, N.Y.
• Amelia Pearce, Snorkel, Henderson, Nev.

Women in Rental Committee:

• Beth Hoff Blackmer, Aspen Rent-All, Basalt, Colo. — Chair
• Kacie Brewer, United Rentals, Stamford, Conn.
• Brandy Carmona, Makinex Construction Products, Torrance, Calif.
• Stacy Irons, Able Equipment Rental, Deer Park, N.Y.
• Jody Kerr, Toro, Bloomington, Minn.
• Annie (AnnaMarie) Ricci, Bigfork Rentals, Bigfork, Mont.
• Angie Venekamp, Rental Network, Squamish, British Columbia, Canada
• Brittany Vruno, CERP, Crown Rental, Burnsville, Minn.

Young Professionals Committee:

• Samantha Ruttura, Our Rental Pumps, Farmingdale, N.Y.
   

The goal is to have all women in the industry get involved, connect with other women in the industry, share and provide support for each other, Hoff Blackmer notes. “So, the action item is that if any woman in the industry hasn’t joined the Women in Rental Facebook or LinkedIn pages or hasn’t been receiving information about Women in Rental activities, contact ARA membership at 800-334-2177 or visit ARArental.org/women-in-rental. I know they will like it once they get involved,” she says.