Part of the tent crew from Portage Awning
A shout out to Portage Awning who helped us this past weekend by providing a 120 foot long tent for one of our corporate groups who came to see Megasaurus.
Mega flame thrower
This is a local story about how buying local works, read “the rest of the story”.
A 40' by 120 foot long tent
We get many great corporate groups ranging from 20 people to in this case 400. The Ariel Corporation is located over near Green and is one of the worlds largest manufacturer of natural gas transfer pumps. They are smart hard working people who have visited with us on many occasions over the years.
Ariel Corp. CEO Karen Buchwald Wright is “the last 'man' standing” to run the company that her father founded.
This local shop was started by a local man Steve Smyers as Standard Jig Bore and purchased by Ariel from Mt. Vernon Ohio a few years ago. Steve started the shop from his garage many years ago and was a customer of ours when we were a grain elevator and agricultural supply provider.
Old pop can vs. new
Among other things Steve helped develop the top of pop cans when you open it the tab stays with the can, remember the days of those little tabs you pulled off??!!
Portage Awning is the Bogdanovich family. Three brothers working together one of them lives just up the road from me. One of the brothers wives is a Stark County Sheriff deputy and is stationed at Marlington High School. They hire lots of local kids to help set these tents up and are right around the corner when the wind starts blowing on our hilltop to help keep those big tents upright.
Michelle behind our catering trailer loaded to the MAX!
On Mega-day Ariel opted for one of our full catering packages that included a meal for their employees and they wanted everyone to be able to sit down together so we needed a big tent.
One big tent!
Seating for 400 people.
A humble welcome sign we have.
So their is nothing wrong about buying where you find the best value we just wanted to highlight and say thanks to all our guests who come out and support our efforts in the fall. Oh we don’t always please everyone, trust me we hear. That takes some sorting out and we are not always a fit for everyone and that is okay.
So what is everyone waiting for?
Personally I have received so many thanks from people this fall “for doing this” as we stand near the pumpkin cannon or the NASHOG pig race track or wherever. But it is by so many people coming and supporting us (Mega-day was our biggest single day ever in 15 years) that we are able to hire local and provide opportunities for companies to give back to their staff.
Mega having a snack
All this together helps improve the quality of life in our community, generates opportunities for growth and in a small way is one of those things that help make life worth living in Northeastern Ohio.
We had so many campfires our Police chief patrolling said it was like a "Village".
