On the morning of Aug. 17, 44 Gorham educators boarded a bus for an exciting new adventure. It wasn’t the first day of a new school year; it was an opportunity for educators to meet with and tour businesses in Gorham, making connections between the skills and knowledge used in various industries and their own classrooms and students.
Created as a collaborative partnership with Aspire Gorham, Maine County and State Teachers of the Year Association (MCSTOYA), and the Town of Gorham’s Office of Economic Development, the event, billed as the First Annual Greater Gorham Business Bus Tour, was offered as an opportunity for all Gorham educators. Educators from every grade level and from all five of the Gorham schools were along for the journey.
MCSTOYA seeks opportunities to provide professionally enriching experiences for educators, by educators. Aspire Gorham is a districtwide Pre-K through grade 12 initiative focused on bringing the classrooms into the community and the community into the classrooms, all with the goal of ensuring that every student, in every grade and classroom, has the opportunity to be exposed to, to explore, or to experience myriad career opportunities.
Christine Fox, HR director of Nappi Distributors, and her team helped kick off the adventure, providing both breakfast treats and a spacious meeting room at their Main Street headquarters. There, Kevin Jensen, the Town of Gorham’s economic development director, welcomed participants and gave them an overview of the business landscape in Gorham and Southern Maine.
As they boarded the bus provided by Custom Coach of New England, educators completed a survey and provided baseline data on their beliefs and understanding of the connections between their classrooms and businesses. They traveled in comfort to the Route 202 rotary and Harvey Performance, where they were met by general manager Adam Martin and his team. There they learned about the growing international business that is Harvey Performance; the various jobs, skills, training opportunities and processes that go into their precision tools; and what really exists inside the massive structure most had seen, but none had entered.
Back onto the buses, the group traveled back to the Gorham Industrial Park to tour businesses in the creative economy space. Half were dropped off at Flowfold, while the second group visited Transformit.
Transformit owner Cindy Thompson and her staff shared the art and science of the fabric installations created and shipped around the globe as art or display pieces in businesses and public spaces, while Flowfold’s production manager Jonathan Eller and founder Charlie Friedman showed off their shop, which designs, sews and ships high-quality wallets, bags, dog leashes and collars, all made out of repurposed materials and a fabric that is created from recycled plastic bottles.
The groups next visited two more technical manufacturing businesses in the Gorham Industrial Park: ODAT by Howell Labs, and Montalvo Corporation.
Ed Montalvo, president of Montalvo Corporation, an 80-year-old family business that makes tensioning systems and components used by industries that require rolling and unrolling of materials, asked his team to talk about the academic and interpersonal skills they seek in employees. At ODAT, their team introduced educators to the concept of “employee owned businesses”, and how advanced manufacturing, including precision CNC machining, injection molding and engineering come together to create products for industries including aerospace, defense, optics, and semiconductors.
The group returned to a lunch-and-learn presentation at Nappi Distributors, where general manager Sean Connell discussed the logistics, skills and training opportunities within his organization before they toured the massive facility.
To end the whirlwind day, Sebago Brewing Company hosted an optional stop for all participants, where they were prepared to talk about the many roles within the service industry and the opportunities and skills they provide.
Upon reflection, many of the educators left excited and inspired by the connections they saw to their content, classroom and students. Whether it was the much-sought-after interpersonal skills; communication, math, science and technology connections; or the creative applications for artistic expression, all participants walked away with new learning and ideas, ready to inspire their students.