fbpx

Kalas Foundation Supports The Fulton Theater

The Fulton Theater located on Prince Street in the heart of downtown Lancaster, PA is a landmark known and respected by memory. A theater with a rich history dating back to the 1700’s known today for it’s broadway quality main stage productions featuring renown shows such as Les Miserable, Beauty & the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame in recent years and the current season stacked with the shows of Treasure Island, 42nd Street, Chicago, Once, the upcoming Mamma Mia! and the present show Sophisticated Ladies which Kalas was able to directly sponsor. 

The Kalas Foundation finds it a great privilege to support such landmark non-profits such as the Fulton Theater which so clearly improves the lives it touches. Not only through main stage performances, but through other meaningful outlets. The Fulton Theater has 2 other series simultaneously. One is their Family Series creating magical performances for audiences of all ages and the other their Studio Series, an artistic outlet for shows less well known which often wrestle larger themes, emotions and complexities. Being a non-profit, The Fulton Theater has a heart for impacting the community in large ways. Beyond their performances, they have growing opportunities with their Fulton Academy for children and adults to learn the power of theater teaching life skills of creativity, communication, confidence & self-expression. They have a school & education outreach program enabling the gift of theater to spread far beyond the reach of those who could afford it. 

This year, The Kalas Foundation once again had the privilege of supporting the meaningful work of the Fulton Theater. The May 22, 2019 performance of Sophisticated Ladies was designated the show our Foundation helped specifically to make possible. It was a thrilling evening of song, dance & delight as Kalas associates come to support the theater and our involvement with them. Kalas VP of Sales & Marketing, Kym Calabretta welcomed visitors to the theater for the performance and shared the goal of the Kalas Foundation to support organizations such as the Fulton who improve the lives we touch. 

We are thankful for the Fulton Theater and invite you to become a subscriber to see the upcoming stellar 2019/2020 season featuring Evita, Peter Pan, Murder on the Orient Express, Kinky Boots, Titanic & Jersey Boys. 

Learn about the Fulton Theater and support their life-giving community today!

March 2019 Service Anniversary Luncheon

March 13, 2019 we joyfully honored 16 Kalas associates who reached service anniversaries ranging from 5 – 40 years with Kalas. Collectively we celebrated 270 of service! It was a touching luncheon full of stories from years past, laughter and much congratulations. The luncheon reminded everyone present of how unique the heart of Kalas continues to be expressing how each individual felt like family. No matter the length of time each associate honored had worked at Kalas, they each shared a similar sentiment of feeling like they belonged, are valued and a vital part of our community. 

With honoring associates who spanned 20, 30 and even 40 years with Kalas, always delightful stories that arose from several family members who have seen Kalas grow over several decades. There were memories of antiquated manufacturing processes jokingly similar cavemen crafts, Kalas plants & buildings being built or shifted, jobs moving locations, and even comical nicknames of associates starting as “kids” only to now be referred to as the “old man”. 

Each luncheon honoring a unique group of associates proves to be special and this was no exception. Beyond the joy of years celebrated and memories shared at this luncheon, we honored our entire Human Resources department who’s anniversaries of 5, 20 & 30 years happen to coincide!

Join us in thanking each and every individual for their hard work, their character and their commitment to Kalas for so long. You are celebrated! 

Spring Service Anniversary Honorees

JAY H MILLER 40

BARRY L

STOLTZ

 40
DAVID N SHOWALTER 35
PENNY S HEMSLEY 30
DANIEL J STEFFY 30
KELLY A FASNACHT 20
CHRISTOPHER M WAGNER 20
MIRCEA GRIJINCU 15
CHERYL LYNN WEEPLE 15
LIBIA E TIBOCHA 15
ELIZABETH AUSTIN 5
CESAR SALAZAR 5
JARED KISCADDEN 5
BARRY WANNER SR 5
BARRY WANNER JR 5
MARK ELL 5

 Enjoy this collection of photos from our Spring anniversary luncheon. 

Celebrating 60 Years!

In the fall of 1958, Kalas founding partners Paul Witwer, Walter Cubberley and Floyd Witwer came together in the back room of the Denver Hardware Supply to create a wire and cable manufacturing company on Main Street in Denver, PA. Now, six decades and three generations later, Kalas is proud to have grown to become a +$150M organization with more than five hundred associates and five buildings.

In honor of this special milestone, Kalas will host Associates and their family members on Saturday, September 29 to celebrate this 60th anniversary.  Kalas will also bequest a commemorative contribution to the local community to support the Denver Memorial Park Access for All Project. The Denver Park is a 12 acre space which hosts local events such as the annual Denver Fair and a wide variety of youth programs. It is available to the community free of charge.  Kalas is grateful for the support and resources of the communities in which their associates live & work and to have been able to provide gainful employment to the Denver and Lancaster communities for six decades and counting!

We will share photos and memories after the big day. Check back for more in October!

 

 

 

Summer 2018 Kalas Service Anniversary Honorees

This Summer’s service anniversary luncheon honorees marked a very special culmination of associates in attendance. With over 255+ years of service from the group in attendance, there may never be another quite like it! There were faces like Kim Brugger(30), John Wiegand(35), Lee Showalter(35) and Glenn Moyer(40) who have been with Kalas for over 30 years, making their history so intertwined with Kalas’ the company wouldn’t have been the same without them. Alongside our long-tenured honorees were treasured associates like Dan Hall and David Johns and Bradley Longer who have reached their 15-year and 25-year marks making them equally as well recognized and valued faces in our family to all of Kalas’ vast group of associates with fewer years than they. Add to that many 5 and 10 year honorees and you can see how special an occurrence this Summer’s group of recognized associates would be.

At Kalas, we are incredibly grateful for being a workplace where employees want to come to work, desire to grow and stay long enough to feel like family. From day one at Kalas, you become a part of the family. Stay long enough and you’ll start to feel the familiar support, connection, and collaboration.

Thank you to all honored associates for everything you bring to Kalas each day you arrive, today and in all of your years past. Here’s to many more ahead!

 

Join us in celebrating our Summer 2018 Kalas honorees:    

  • JUSTIN KLEINSPEHN 5
  • SURBHI PATEL  5 
  • TIMOTHY BROCK 5
  • KEITH KLINGER 5
  • JOHN HEMSLEY 5
  • YOVANI CRUZ 10
  • TIM J EICHELBERGER 10
  • DANIEL A HALL 15 
  • MAR ANN KRAFT 15
  • BRADLEY G LONGER 25
  • KIM R BRUGGER 30
  • LEE A SHOWALTER 35

Enjoy Photos from Kalas’ Summer Service Anniversary Luncheon

Service-Ann-7-18-group
Service-Ann-7-18-bags
Service-Ann-7-18-Glenn
Service-Ann-7-18-Jack
Service-Ann-7-18-line
Service-Ann-7-18-lunch-1
Service-Ann-7-18-lunch

Celebrating Our Employees – January Honoree

This fall Kalas will proudly celebrate our 60th Anniversary. Starting out of a hardware supply store in Denver, PA to today’s coast-to-coast copper manufacturing and value-add solutions company Kalas has a history filled with seasons of growth and change. To celebrate our 60 years of business and the memories that come with longevity, we will interview associates who have been with Kalas through many seasons witnessing Kalas’ history first-hand.

To start off our monthly feature honoring our most loyal employees, we want to introduce you to Russ Pannebecker. Russ has been with Kalas for over 40 years and has had the opportunity of experiencing many aspects of the manufacturing process. He started with Kalas in January of 1978 working 2nd shift in Engineered Cable Products Division. At that time all divisions were located in one single building in Denver, PA. After a short 3 months, Russ moved to the bare copper wire division where he ran bunchers and wire drawing machines on 3rd shift until moving to 1st shift after 5 years. In the late 80’s Russ was offered a promotion to 2nd Shift Supervisor. Unexpected at the time, this promotion was a highlight and a joy to him. He was able to experience Shift Supervision for each shift over a span of many years following his promotion. After that season, he was promoted to Plant Superintendent. Shortly after he elected to move to a production related job where he currently works as a Process Flow Coordinator scheduling wire production.

Over Russ’ 40 years with Kalas, several memories come to mind as highlights for him. Outside of his unexpected promotion in the 80’s, Russ describes the whole season of the early 90’s through the early 2000s as memorable as Kalas went through vast expansions and change. New equipment was added throughout Kalas, particularly Multiwires at K-1 were introduced and added year after year as well as new bunchers to keep up with Kalas’ growing business. All of the changes made for exciting memories during Russ’ time with Kalas. Russ would say the biggest change he had experienced over his time was the introduction of multiwire and the increased technology during that time period.  “It totally changed how we did things. We went from 40 LB spools to 2,000 LB reels for payoffs, truly was remarkable at the time.” Russ says.

When asked what the favorite part of his job is today, Russ says it’s the people. “I have made many friends over the years in all my position and worked with lots of good hard working associates. I have had many supervisors and managers all of which I had a good working relationship with. I enjoy My current position, but overall I would definitely say the People were the best part of any of the Jobs I had.”

As a company, we are so thankful for associates like Russ who take pride in their roles at Kalas and see the positives in working in our interesting field of manufacturing.