Children of Powerspan employees have had an opportunity to get a first-hand look at what their parents do at work. The company has participated in Take Your Children to Work Day, inviting kids ages 12 to 17 into the workplace to witness the daily activities of the engineering, manufacturing, and research departments.

Take Your Children to Work Day was started in the early nineties by the Ms. Foundation for Women as Take Our Daughters to Work Day. Each year on the fourth Thursday of April, companies open their doors to employees’ children so they can learn about different occupations and gain a better understanding of how their parents spend their workdays.

April 26, 2002—Children of Powerspan employees, ranging in age from 12 to 16, visited the New Durham office for "Bring Your Children to Work Day." After a general overview and a brief safety training course, the children took part in special activities prepared by the R&D, Manufacturing, and Engineering departments. They performed experiments in the R&D lab, learned safety procedures for the high-voltage electricity cage, saw an electrical "arc" jump between metal rods, and helped make airborne particles disappear with an electrical discharge.

  

 

April 26, 2001—Sporting their Powerspan baseball caps and safety glasses, children of Powerspan employees could be seen welding, cutting metal, and designing electrical circuitry, as the company took part in Take Your Children to Work Day.  The visitors, ranging in age from 12 to 15, were given an overview of the company, a tour of the building, safety training, and a pizza lunch.  Then they were put to work in the machine shop, lab, and electrical engineering departments.

Lead Electrical Engineer Giovanni Paradiso and associate John Cassidy had the kids solve a problem by designing an electrical circuit, assembling a working model, and testing it. In the machine shop, Manufacturing Supervisor Mark Saunders and Machinist Bill Healey gave them an overview of cutting and forming machines and let them do their own small projects. Metal Fabricators Bill Popelka and Paul Hendrickson gave a tour of the welding shop and helped them weld their initials on small slabs of steel.