What started out as a Cub Scout project in the early 1990s is now a highly anticipated event every November at Dura Supreme Cabinetry. For the past thirty years every employee that has a fifth-grader in their life, be it a parent or grandparent, is invited to bring them to our annual Kids Switch Day event.
It’s not every day your children get to see what you do at work first-hand. Our Kids Switch students typically step away from this event with a newfound sense of honor for what their parent or grandparent does for work; an understanding of what it means to work hard, take care in the quality of their work, and to get a feel for the manufacturing and woodworking industry. It also can help them be inspired to start building good habits at school that will help them be successful in their future careers.
Check out our Instagram Reel to see more pictures from this event!
Dura Supreme’s Environmental Health and Safety Manager, Tom, giving the morning lecture to the Kids Switch Students. Tom has over 28 years of experience at Dura Supreme and has been coaching our Kids Switch Students for several years.
The morning is filled with fun and educational activities including an inspirational speech from our Environmental Health and Safety Manager, Tom. His speech demonstrates how important it is to be a good student and how those same traits carry over to being a good employee one day. Throughout the class, students are encouraged to break into discussions with the group and share ideas on how their efforts at school or home can help build positive habits so they can work towards success in their future career.
The Kids Switch Day Factory Tour
A Factory Tour is up next! Our volunteer tour guides take the children on a walk throughout our facility teaching them how a cabinet is made from start to finish. They get to see first-hand what a work day looks like in manufacturing at Dura Supreme, and how important each and every job is for helping ensure we make a quality product and service for our customers.
During the tour, every child gets to make a special stop to see their parent or grandparent and hear them explain and demonstrate what their role is at Dura Supreme to the tour group.
Guy’s son had lots of great questions for his father about the machines in Cutting & Specials. Guy (center) demonstrated to the tour group how one of our cutting machine operates and how his team unloads the freshly cut pieces.
Kristi shares with her granddaughter and the tour group about her job in Customer Service. Kristi knows a LOT about Customer Care and has been with Dura Supreme for nearly 45 years!
Enrique, who has been working in our Inventory Control Department for over 26 years shares with his granddaughter and the tour group about our recycling processes and what his job involves each day.
Our product manager, Jacob, not only guides one of the tours but also shares with his daughter and the group the steps that takes place in our company to create a new product for our customers.
Martha teachers her granddaughter and the tour group how important accuracy and efficiency is every day when she does her job in the Tow-line (finish).
Three generations! Zulma (mother) and Martha (grandma) take a quick photo with their grandchild/child during the tour.
The Build-A-Cabinet Project
After the tour, the class meets in the lunch room for our Build-A-Cabinet project! With assistance from the managers and our volunteer supervisors, they get geared up with the proper safety equipment, learn about the tools they will be using to accomplish the job, and get to dive into this fun hands-on activity.
The class getting ready to start the Build-A-Cabinet project!
During this project the children learn the importance of paying attention to the details in order to produce a quality product. After passing “inspection” with our Quality Control expert, the cabinet is theirs to keep and take home as a memorable keepsake of their day at Dura Supreme!
I will say, over the past 10+ years I’ve been at Dura Supreme, every year the Kids Switch Day is a truly inspiring event for everyone involved. I love seeing all the faces of my co-workers throughout our facility filled with smiles for the children. You can just feel the strong presence of pride for what we do radiating through the building. You can see the children throughout the day understanding and gaining their own pride for what their parent/grandparent does for a living.
Student Switch Class of 2022
It’s a blessing to work for a company that not only supports their employees in many ways but makes the investment to support our children/grandchildren and their future careers.
