The sight of school buses entering the Sturgeon Bay Industrial Park during your morning commute on Thursday could be the start of a new generation of manufacturing employees in Door County. Over 300 students representing all five Door County school districts and Algoma visited 12 manufacturers throughout the county, including NEW Industries, Therma-Tron-X, and Hatco, as a part of Manufacturing Day organized by the Door County Economic Development Corporation and the Door County Manufacturers Association. Students got to tour the manufacturing facilities and see current employees in action producing hundreds of different products. NEW Industries' Dave Moore, Jake Schinktgen, and Christine Conlon say with the need for new employees that they are seeing, you can never start too young to inspire the next generation.
According to the DCEDC’s Korey Mallien and the latest figures from JobEQ, Door County’s 65 manufacturing businesses employ more than 2,200 people and contributed $200 million to the peninsula’s gross domestic product in 2021.
Picture courtesy of NEW Industries