NEWS

GE opens doors to kids

Todd Hill
Reporter

BUCYRUS – Manufacturers across this region have for a very long time been making products essential for the operation of one thing or another. But many adults – let alone fourth graders – would be hard-pressed to identify how many of these products actually work.

Everybody understands what a light bulb does though, even kids.

It was that accessibility, married with the urgent need to get local youth interested in local jobs, which brought Bucyrus City Schools, the GE Lighting Bucyrus Lamp Plant and Junior Achievement together Thursday morning for a hands-on tour for the kids.

"It's a coordinated program that teaches work readiness, financial literacy and entrepreneurship. The employees teach it and the kids love it. It's very interactive, and it gives the students firsthand experience in what it's like to work in an operation like this. It bridges the gap," Cheryl Thomas, of Junior Achievement of North Central Ohio, said.

"They're like, 'Wow, we're learning good stuff.'"

Thursday's tour, for fourth-grade students at Bucyrus Elementary School, lasted two and a half hours and included much more than just an opportunity to see how the plant's assembly line works, although that part of the tour was in fact pretty cool.

The kids learned about everything from business management and financials to supply-chain economics and human resources. The latter topic was addressed by way of a bingo game, while the students' math skills were tested through measurement of concrete and sizing up the carrying capacity of a tractor-trailer.

The tour, an annual event, is part of Junior Achievement's Our Region program, which teaches fourth graders how entrepreneurs use their resources to produce goods and services in a region, and shows them how money comes into and goes out of a business. Junior Achievement's Job Shadow program is targeted toward high school students and is designed to help teens research career opportunities. Thomas said her agency is presently working with the Gorman-Rupp Company in Mansfield on that program.

GE's Bucyrus Lamp Plant, which opened in 1942, employs about 330 people who make more than 100 million T-8 and T-12 fluorescent tubes annually. The company is investing $20 million in Bucyrus, with 70 new jobs expected by the end of the year, maintaining three new energy-efficient, soft-white production lines.

At the start of Thursday's tour, which also included a handful of parents, the fourth-graders were given a bag full of souvenirs, which included sunglasses that most of the kids immediately put on, although they quickly had to replace them with safety glasses once they walked onto the factory floor.

Meredith Wilson, human resources manager at the plant, said most of the operation was quiet Thursday morning to allow the kids on site, although at least a dozen employees were busy working with the tour.

thill3@nncogannett.com

419-563-9225

Twitter: @ToddHillMNJ