Area students are spending the week taking part in hands-on activities and touring area manufacturing facilities during the four-day (Dale Lauren Foland Manufacturing Camp)

NEW PHILADELPHIA (WJER) - Buckeye Career Center and local manufacturers will showcase the area’s manufacturing scene this week first to seventh- and eighth-graders and then to the entire community. 

The Dale Lauren Foland Manufacturing Camp is this week for middle school students. Bcc Director Of Curriculum, Instruction And Adult Education Frank Polen says campers will learn about manufacturing careers in Tuscarawas County.

“What it’s looking to do is to expose students, expose community members to the world of manufacturing. It’s not like it once was in the times of the industrial revolution, and what’s we’re looking at is trying to change what work looks like to people and grow a manufacturing-rich base here in Tuscarawas County,” he says.

Polen says camp will start every morning, Tuesday through Friday, at Buckeye Career Center before participants visit companies in the afternoon, learning from the manufacturers themselves.

“Over the course of a four-day period, they’ll be in I think it’s seven, eight manufacturing plants. They’ll be exposed to safety, design, leadership, learn about lean manufacturing, purchasing and receiving and quality. They’ll do a lot of hands-on activities, and then they’ll get to see it actually in the world of work in the afternoons,” he says.

The week will conclude Saturday with a festival at Tuscora Park from 11 am to 2 pm, open to the public. Area manufacturers will share information about their workplaces while guests will enjoy a rib cookoff and other activities. More details are available online at dlfmcamp.com or by calling Buckeye Career Center.

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