For Immediate Release

Powerspan Employees “Take the Children to Work”

NEW DURHAM, N.H., April 27, 2001—Sporting their Powerspan baseball caps and safety glasses, seven children of Powerspan employees could be seen welding, cutting metal, and designing electrical circuitry Thursday, 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.

"This is the first time we’ve tried this,” said Pamela Bailey, Human Resources Manager, “and it was a great success.  The kids had a blast, especially with the hands-on activities.”

The teens were enthusiastic about the program, and left thank you notes on the conference room white board. “Wow, Mom,” said one young participant, “I didn’t know you worked in such a cool place.”

Lead 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 Healy 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.

Powerspan Corp. is a clean-energy technology company in New Durham that is designing, testing, and building multi-pollutant control systems for coal-fired power plants. When Company President and Chief Operating Officer Phillip Boyle asked the children what the company was doing, one participant answered simply, “You’re cleaning the air.”