A brick school building in Evanston covered in snow. Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Evanston’s manufacturers will spend Friday, Oct. 2, showing off what they make, and who they hope will make it next. About 80 local middle school students are scheduled to tour factories in the city’s West End as part of National Manufacturing Day.
Breakfast, then tours
The day opens with a networking breakfast from 7:30 to 9 a.m. at Ward Manufacturing, 2230 Main St. Manufacturers, partner organizations, legislators, sponsors and community leaders are invited. Registration is required.
At 9 a.m. the students arrive for an open house and a round of company tours. At each stop they are meant to see how the business operates, talk with employees about the jobs available and see how science and math show up in daily work. The group then heads to Evanston Township High School to learn about the manufacturing classes offered there and tour the school’s new manufacturing lab.
Jennifer Kalas, president of IRMCO, is listed as the local contact for the day.
The West End
The West End was once home to steel mills, brickyards and major railroads. Today it holds small and mid-sized commercial businesses, along with manufacturing and technology companies.
The local program is not new. In 2014 Evanston marked the day with a similar event, when about 90 middle school students toured area businesses, the Daily Northwestern reported. The companies in that round included a dessert maker, a metal stamping firm and an optical glass producer, a reminder of how varied the work is.
A national push
Manufacturing Day was created to improve public understanding of manufacturing careers and to show students, parents, teachers, the press and customers that the field offers a wide range of jobs. In 2014, according to the same report, events were held at more than 1,500 locations in 49 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and three Canadian provinces.
The aim in Evanston is practical. Employers in a field that many teenagers associate with an older economy want to reach students while they are still choosing high school classes. A visit to a working shop floor is one way to do that.
More information is available at mfgday.com.
Daniel Okafor covers business, startups and the Innovators section for The Evanston Edge.
