Month: December 2019

Weldon, a unit of Akron Brass, partnered with “Wagons Ho Ho Ho” on “Build Day” last week, packing Christmas dinners for local families, all in a shiny new red wagon.

Thirty-three Weldon team members worked alongside other community sponsors to build 1,500 Roadmaster Pacific Cycle wagons, and pack them with dinners with turkey, corn, yams, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans.

In months leading up to “Build Day”, Weldon team members collected more than 600 cans of corn, 100 cans of green beans and 500 boxes of stuffing, which were used to pack the dinners.

Based in Columbus, Ohio, Wagons Ho Ho Ho is a charity that delivers hope to families in need throughout central Ohio during the holidays.

To watch a video of Build Day from 2017, click here

Weldon produces multiplexing electronics and lighting used in the fire truck, emergency vehicle, and school bus markets

Amanda Macuiba, a Compensation Analyst at IDEX Corporate in Chicago, qualified for the 2020 USA Olympic Track & Field Trials by finishing in less than 2 hours 45 minutes at the California International Marathon in Sacramento on Sunday.

To qualify for the Women’s US Olympic Team Trials, participants must finish a marathon (26.2 miles) in less than 2:45:00. Amanda sped through the course with an average pace of 6:17 minutes/mile and finished with 31 seconds to spare and a personal best time of 2:44:29.

“Around mile 17, I began to get tired and started to struggle. I negotiated internally and forced myself to stay engaged. I saw a couple of girls who were also trying to qualify, and just focused on remaining close to them,” Amanda said. “Around mile 20, I found a second wind. My mentality completely shifted, and I realized that I could still do it!”

“I love being able to set goals, especially when it’s a stretch, and see them accomplished,” she said. “Unreal is the only word I have. All those 100-mile weeks, all of the exhaustion paid off. Crossing the finish line, I’ve never felt more prideful.”

“It’s baffling and amazing at the same time,” she said.

Growing up, Amanda’s family vacations were tied to the locations of the Ironman Triathlons in which her father raced. She began running when she joined the cross country team in high school, but focused on soccer as she entered her freshman year of college at Illinois Wesleyan University.

She decided to leave the soccer team after her freshman year and began running the Steeplechase for the Illinois Wesleyan Track & Field team in 2013. Embracing her new sport, she ran her first marathon in Vienna, Austria, in 2015 and competed in the Division III Women’s National Outdoor Championships during her senior year of college.

After graduating college, Amanda ran six more marathons, including the Boston, Chicago, and California International, before deciding to train for the Olympic trials. When she attempted to qualify for the trials earlier in 2019, she ran the Illinois Marathon in 2 hours 50 minutes.

“I was so frustrated with myself (for not qualifying), that I immediately registered for the CIM (California International Marathon). I knew I had run a personal best there a year earlier, and wanted to give myself a six month training cycle,” she said.

With the help of family friend and 1996 US Olympic Trial Winner Jenny Spangler, Amanda significantly improved her speed in short distances, long-term endurance, strength, and flexibility over the last six months.

Amanda will continue to partner with Jenny and plans to start training again as early as next week.

The 2020 USA Olympic Track & Field Trials will take place in Atlanta, Georgia on Saturday, February 29. The three women with the fastest finishes will make the U.S. Olympic Team and will compete in the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.

About 200 women competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials marathon in February 2016. The winners who went on to the games in Rio de Janeiro all had times just under 2 hours 30 minutes.

Congratulations, Amanda!!

 

 

 

LUKAS demonstrated the battery-powered, watertight eWXT rescue tools at the ninth annual “Long Nights of Sciences” event in Erlangen, Germany last month.

Held every other year, The Long Night of Sciences (Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften) is one of the largest scientific communication events in the Nuremberg metropolitan region, bringing together more than 20,000 science enthusiasts from Nuremberg, Fürth, and Erlangen, Germany. Members of the general public attend lectures and see demonstrations at local institutions from the early evening until past midnight.

To improve brand recognition in Germany, LUKAS team members demonstrated the eWXT tools, and shared information about their rescue tool portfolio with enthusiasts and prospective employees. Attending the event for the first time, LUKAS Team members answered common questions including, “How does eDRAULIC work under water?” and “Why doesn’t the battery explode when submerged in Water?”

With six local universities, private knowledge projects, public institutions and research institutes in attendance, the event allowed LUKAS to expand their network, and further educate people on how their products improve lives in the community.

To watch a recap video of the 2017 event, click here

 

 

With the goal to better serve its customers, Ohio-based Warren Rupp updated their SANDPIPER and Versamatic mobile apps last month.

The new SANDPIPER and Versamatic apps enable users to scan QR codes on their pumps and look up information, while also providing an interactive chemical compatibility guide, and other important resources.

Originally launched in 2014, Warren Rupp’s previous apps were downloaded through the app store, lacked functionality, ease of use, and a modern user experience.

Working with app developer Lumavate, Warren Rupp’s applications transitioned from being hosted on mobile applications to Progressive Web Applications (PWA).

PWAs enable content managers to make updates quickly, which allows the most current product information to be in the customers hands instantaneously. The old, traditional native apps require an update. For development, PWAs are quick to deploy and in this case, was a more cost-effective option compared to native app development. Users can also access the PWA on their desktop, and PWAs take up about 1/10 of the space of a traditional native app.

“For us, it was about developing an app that would provide the most seamless experience for our customers,” said Michelle Miller, Marketing Manager at Warren Rupp. “The biggest thing for us is scalability. There’s a ton of value in knowing that in the future, there are ways that we can add technologies and features and functionality that will further empower and enable our end users.”

To view the SANDPIPER application, click here

To view the Versamatic application, click here

 

When an SUV was involved in a devastating crash in a Florida Intersection, the South Daytona Fire Department relied on their new HURST Jaws of Life rescue tools purchased by Firehouse Subs to help rescue the driver.

Firehouse Subs, a nationwide sandwich restaurant chain founded by former firefighters, recently featured the lifesaving incident, including the HURST Jaws of Life eDRAULIC rescue tool, in a social media campaign.

The video features the South Daytona Fire Department and how they benefited from receiving HURST Jaws of Life rescue tools through the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation.

To watch the video, click here

Since 2017, the HURST team in Shelby, North Carolina, has partnered with Firehouse Subs on commercials and service projects. With similar interests in community outreach, the companies decided to activate their partnership further through the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation in 2018.

Founded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation provides funding, lifesaving equipment and educational opportunities for first responders and public safety organizations.

Since the Foundation started, it has granted over $46 million to provide equipment, training, and support to hometown heroes

To learn more about the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation, click here