The students began pondering and eventually guessed these were items manufactured in the United States.

Goodell noted they’re not wrong, but not specific enough, adding that all these things are either partially or completely manufactured in Chautauqua County.

Goodell was one of nearly a dozen speakers who participated in Manufacturing Day. Sponsored by the Manufactuers Association of the Southern Tier, the day is designed to bring together students, manufacturers, and politicians to reinforce the importance of manufacturing in the region.

Todd Tranum, MAST executive director and president of Dream It Do It Western New York, kicked off the event. “Manufacturing in our region is dependent on the youth adults here with us today along with those school districts, colleges and universities throughout our region. The bottom line is this, manufacturers need you right now and well into the future if we are able to keep our companies here and grow,” he said.

Photo by Gregory Bacon Christine McAllister from Rep. Nick Langworthy’s office talks to Caleb Prewitt, a senior Chautauqua Lake student, about the school’s new power feed lathe.

Among those who spoke was Rhonda Johnson with Weber Knapp. She shared how she started out on the company floor, working second shift. Today she is the president of Weber Knapp and is in the process of buying the company with another person.

She hopes other female students will have similar successes in their future. “Manufacturing is important to this county, this region, and this country. At one time it was considered a male-dominated field. Not any longer. Gender doesn’t matter in manufacturing. Skills, drive, and leadership matter,” she said.

Chautauqua Lake Central School has the most advanced manufacturing program of any of the 17 high schools in the county.

County Executive PJ Wendel applauded the school and its leadership. “What Josh (Liddell, school superintendent) has done here at Chautauqua Lake School is something that we should have been doing in education for decades. We got away from these hands-on learning experiences and got into standardize testing. Well guess what, a standardize test is not going to manufacture components. It’s not going to manufacture parts of a nuclear sub, or bombs, or defense contracts, or diesel engines that power our industry,” he said.

Ellen Ditonto with Retool Western New York noted how manufacturing is evolving. “We are now into high tech. We’re into 3-D printers. We’re into a lot of high tech that goes into our supply chain. … We’ve heard how many companies went off into Asia, into other parts of Europe. We want to bring them back here so that all of you have jobs in the future,” she said.

Tenth-grade students Evan Riedesel and Lillian Schenk are taking an Introduction to Engineering class at Chautauqua Lake.

Superintendent Liddell noted how a decade ago their manufacturing program was a little more than a dream. But they put that dream into action and developed the program it has today. “At Chautauqua Lake, we have witnessed this amazing program enable students to experience the joy of not only dreaming of a product but to also design it and to actually make it a tangible entity. This hands-on kinesthetic learning process is totally different than simply studying and attempting to perform well on an exam. The pride our students take in their projects and the analytic skill set they are developing is powerful,” he said.

Other key speakers at the event included MAST President Dale Gier, Chris Lanski with Excelco-Newbrook, Inc., Christine McAllister with Rep. Nick Langworthy’s Office, Grant Umberger with JCC, and CLCS Principal Rachel Curtin.

After the speakers, those in attendance went around and viewed the students projects and equipment used by those in the manufacturing program.

Tranum said the Manufacturing Day, which is held the first Friday in October, is designed to highlight the importance of manufacturing in the Southern Tier and helps show the reality of modern manufacturing careers.

Ben Siliano, a 10th-grade student at Chautauqua Lake discusses digital electronics with Chautauqua Town Supervisor Don Emhardt.