Avon Lake's Troy Students Win Rare Tour of Ohio Assembly Plant

One of s fifth-grade classes won an Earth Day competition and were rewarded with a rare tour of Ford's Ohio Assembly Plant June 1.

Students in Gina Plow's class, Ola Abuhamdeh, Kate Balthaser, Macey Buchanan, Morgan Carlin, Bailey Crawford, Ian Harris, Ellie Lemanowicz, Faith Lengen, Katie Michlovic, Emily Nusbaum, Hailey Radcliffe, Grace Stevenson, Edgars York and  Grace Zaubi, were all awarded certificates for helping with the poster.

Plow said the students worked for days on the poster.         

The entire class toured the plant and heard a talk on sustainability. They were also treated to a pizza lunch and met plant manager Alex Maciag.

More than 80 posters from classes in grades K- 8 in and  Sheffield-Sheffield Lake school districts were submitted to the Ohio Assembly plant, which sits in Avon Lake and Sheffield Lake. The contest only allowed winning entries from fifth through seventh-graders.

The contest was the brainchild of plant environmental engineer Matt Mesaros to coincide with Earth Day, April 22.

“They’re extremely creative, more creative than I am,” Mesaros said. He told the students the project yielded plant benefits and generated more recycling at the plant.

Posters needed an environmental theme and needed to include both the Ford and Ohio Assembly logos as well as the motto, “Protecting the environment is everybody’s job.”

The entries lined one of the hallways at the plant and recyclable containers were placed in the hallway with the posters of the eight finalists attached on the Assembly Plant's new bottle-shaped recycling containers. Employees voted on their favorite piece by dropping a bottle or can in the container displaying their favorite poster.  Each can or bottle represented one vote.

The Troy class earned 383 recycled bottles in a four-day period.

Jennifer Fenderbosch, who strongly supports green initiatives talked to the students about recycling and explained how Avon Lake parks will be getting recycling containers, like the ones their poster was displayed on.

Also in attendance were Mary Ellen Rosenberger, Plant Environmental Advocate and Keith Bailey, Director of the Lorain County Solid Waste Disposal and Nick Gallogly, one of the Local 2000 union chairmen. 

The Ohio Assembly Plant makes Ford’s E-Series trucks and vans. Following the tour, students gathered outside to pose in front of some of the vehicles on display.