Celebrating Our Employees – May Honoree

Meet Lyn Hassler, a very special member of our Kalas Family. At the end of June, Lyn will be celebrating 44 ½ years with Kalas!  Lyn’s history is not only remarkable for his loyal tenure, he has worked in various roles and departments throughout the company with unremitting enjoyment here.

Beginning in December of 1970, following 4 years of service in the Air Force, Lyn spent 8.5 years driving truck around Philadelphia (for a wage of $2.50/hr!). During that season he also had the opportunity to gain work experience in the battery cable division and also in the Quality Control department. When Kalas expanded into a second plant in 1983, Lyn transitioned into 2nd shift supervision in the new plant #2 over the new CV line and battery cable division, which was then located in plant #2. He worked in that role until 1988 when he gladly accepting a role in the Purchasing Department.  He remained working in that role until retirement in June 2014, only to come back part-time three years later where he currently works as one of our senior buyers.

With almost 44 ½ of history at Kalas, Lyn has seen a lot of changes the biggest being when the company was physically growing and expanding. In Lyn’s words “One only needs to tour plant #2 from front to back to see all the building additions to the plant or see an aerial view/picture of plant #1 to see what I mean, or take a ride to see the Lancaster plant.”

Lyn says he has many great memories at Kalas but one that always stood out to him was from when he was driving truck:

“I was delivering a load of wire to a customer of ours, Great Valley Industries, in Exton, Pa. I got pulled over by a cop and I was perplexed and a bit scared wondering, since I wasn’t driving fast and I hadn’t run a red light or did anything else wrong, why was he pulling me over. The cop apparently recognized the Kalas name on the truck and he knew John Jones. He proceeded to say to me “when you see Johnny Jones tell him he owes me a set of jumper cables”, he then told me his name (which I don’t remember), and left me go to make the rest of my deliveries. By the way, John Jones did get him a set of jumper cables.”

One of the greatest parts of having Lyn in the Kalas family for so long is his gratitude. Lyn says “I always enjoyed working at Kalas and I always felt that I was treated fairly throughout my career here. Kalas was always good to me and my family. I’m so glad that a job here was available back in December of 1970, and thank you Jean Shirk for giving me a recommendation for that job.”

With a heart and mindset like that, it’s no wonder Lyn continued to enjoy working in his various roles and made the most of his nearly 44 ½ years with Kalas.

As a company, we are grateful and humbled to be able to employ such hardworking positive people such as him. Please join us in thanking Lyn for all of his years of service at Kalas!

Celebrating Service Anniversaries from 5 – 40 Years

Stories of continual commitment, hard-work and on-going development are incredibly meaningful to the Kalas family. Every few months it’s a privilege to honor numerous associates reaching anniversaries of service in their careers with the company. This month we celebrated 13 anniversaries ranging from 5 years to 40 years of work with Kalas!

Our service anniversary luncheon celebrated anniversaries occurring February through May 2018. The 13 associates honored were from roles throughout the company.

Please enjoy a few photos from the celebration and join us in thanking each honoree for their commitment and hard work over so many years!

WILLIAM D JOHNS – 15
RUSSELL J COOPER – 10
GILBERT ROSS – 5
ORLANDO MELENDEZ – 5
FRANK DAVID REPOLEY – 10
JOHN A WIEGAND – 35
VALERIA FOX – 20
TODD M PETERS – 25
RANDALL C ANSEL – 20
ELSIE I ESPADA RIVERA – 10
GLENN R MOYER – 40
RACHEL HEISEY – 5
RICKY D MECKLEY – 10

Celebrating Our Employees – April Honoree

This month we are excited to highlight Jeffery Werner. 2018 marks his 30th year at Kalas. His history and acquired expertise is something to celebrate!

When Jeffery was 19, Kalas was a small company with not nearly as many jobs or ability to get hired easily. He was able to start working here at age 19  where he worked fork lift for 2 short months before asking if he could take an extruder position that was about to become available. After that he was trained and started his now almost 30-year career working the highly technical role of extruder operator. He currently works in Kalas Plant 2 as the Operator of Extruder 4. Over his 30 year span he’s been trained on so many extruders that he’s one of the expert operators and extremely versatile in working our extrusion machines.

With 30 years of working in the same type of role, Werner has seen what a huge impact technology has made within our organization. He remembers for years everything was by hand. All of the work orders were hand written which he follows to set and run his extruder for each job order. Now everything is by computer. What a change to have lived through!

Over the years he’s enjoyed seeing all of the growth within the company and has had many positive moments. Some rose to the top like being extruder of the month before, seeing the generations of the company change and being present for large celebrations like Kalas’ 50th anniversary.

It’s been a great 30 years and Werner really enjoys his work. He likes that to operate such a large technical piece of equipment he must think fast and be mentally engaged. But what he really appreciates most in life is that his work here at Kalas allows him to pursue his passion at home. Jeffery works 2nd and 3rd shifts so he has the availability to coach track & football at the schools where his kids are enrolled. Coaching and being in the lives of his kids are what light him up in life. He also had seasons of teaching Martial Arts before his coaching roles. It is obvious by talking to Jeffery Werner that he finds passion in life and his time at Kalas is only one space where he gets to exhibit it.

This month, let’s thank Jeffery Werner for his time, his desire to learn extrusion operation and his positive up-beat personality he brings to Kalas. We are thankful for exceptional associates like him!

 

Supporting Associate 20th Ride in MDA Ride for Life

Kalas Associate Glenn Martin will ride once again in the MDA Ride for Life, the world’s largest Harley-Davidson fundraising event benefiting the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Glenn has joyfully given his time, resources and heart to support this charitable event for the past 19 years. Even after so many years of participation in the ride, Glenn still highly anticipates the impact he will be able to make through this event. The Kalas Foundation is proud to be supporting Martin’s 20th MDA Ride for Life!

This year the ride will be held May 3-6 in and around Seven Springs Resort in Champion, PA. Over the past 31 years of the Ride’s existence, this event has grown exponentially. The ride now raises over $1,000,000 yearly, involves various events beyond the motorcycle ride and spans 4 days. It’s a privilege to have associates like Glenn at Kalas who care so deeply about causes such as this. He has been living out the Kalas Foundation’s mission of improving the lives we touch for over two decades and we couldn’t be more proud to support him in doing so.

If you would like to learn more about the MDA Ride for Life visit: http://www.mdarideforlife.org

Please join us in thanking Glenn for caring for our community and if you’d like to join us in supporting him during this event please get in touch!

To learn about our Kalas Foundation, visit: kalasfoundation.org

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Celebrating Our Employees – March Honoree

Kalas is proud to introduce TED RUTH, a loyal and dedicated associate since 1978. Currently, Ted works out of our Plant 2 facility as an Associate Product Engineer, a position that aligns to his extensive product knowledge and wire and cable expertise.

Over Ted’s four decades at Kalas, he has gained a comprehensive understanding of our manufacturing process from exposure to a very wide variety of positions, from machine operator to supervisor, to today’s role in engineering. Each of his many responsibilities allowed Ted to gain an understanding and an appreciation for the copper wire and cable production process from start to finish. Through his years, Ted has been in charge of operating 5 different copper extruders, filled in operating others, moved from working in plant 1 to plant 2, had seasons working on all three shifts, was promoted to supervisor and eventually transitioned into the role he holds today. Such hands-on experience is not only noteworthy at Kalas, it is extremely valuable for every role he’s worked since, especially his current role.

Being the Associate Product Engineer requires him to craft technical specifications for manufacturing orders and cable construction which needs to also be understandable to associates on the manufacturing floor making each cable. Ted says his ability to use his product knowledge and expertise he has gained through working so many years and roles is the part of his job he is most grateful for today. Regarding this opportunity to use his past experience and knowledge, Ted shares: “It helped me as a Supervisor, the operators knew I would help them because I was familiar with the machines. My own experiences of working on the floor, then with people, knowledge of the product and the business helped me move into Product Engineering.”

It is no surprise that Ted comments he has countless good memories from his 40 years with Kalas. One memory that stands out from the late ‘70s early ‘80s comes from his time as a new 3rd shift extruder operator. He remembers Paul Witwer, one of the original founding partners of Kalas, coming into work in the late evening or early morning wishing the 3rd shift workers a Merry Christmas and thanking everyone personally for being hardworking men by patting each of them on the back, not at all concerned about shaking Ted’s dirty greasy hands.

And out of all the changes Kalas has seen as a company over his time working here, the largest change in his experience has been the expansion of our business from one plant to several divisional plants and sister companies: “When I was hired, Kalas was one building. The 9th extruder was just put in and started running. The wire department took up a small portion of the back of the building against the hardware store on Main Street. All of the wire drawing and twisting equipment were small scale in comparison to today’s wire machinery. The Battery Cable department took up the smallest area against the front wall across the street from the Denver Distributor, needing only several dozen workers to cover the three shifts. Back then, the word was “you had to know somebody to get in” and get hired by Kalas. Most of the employees on all three shifts knew each other’s name, many were close friends even knowing their spouses and families.”

Join us in thanking Ted for his hard-work and loyalty to Kalas. We are grateful for his time and look forward to celebrating his 40th work anniversary in September!

Celebrating Our Employees – February Honoree

Meet Chuck Miller. He’s will have been with Kalas for 40 years this October. Chuck currently works at Kalas Plant 2 in shipping where he has been for over 39 years of his employment.

When he began his career at Kalas, the company operated out of one single building. His original assignment was in battery cable assembly for our Engineered Cable Products Division. After a short 6 months he was able to transition into shipping and truck driving. 39 years later, Chuck is nearly an expert in all shipping and driving processes at Kalas. He has the rich history of living through all of the shipping department changes our company has made as it has expanded and technology has increased over time.

In the beginning, Chuck drove truck making local deliveries. His truck driving quickly grew in distance as the companies orders expanded. For many years he would travel for distant deliveries which could be completed within a day’s work covering much of our state, NY and Maryland. He still remembers how everything had to be lifted in and out of the trucks using hand carts before we transitioned to using forklifts! That meant lifting and unloading large orders of cable reels all on his own. Truck driving and preparing shipments took a lot of physical strength 40 years ago.

Forklifts aside, Chuck would say the biggest change he’s experienced over his time was the plant additions. Having started when Kalas was housed out of Plant 1 and making local deliveries, he has seen our company expand to it’s current state of four local facilities, one value-add warehouse on the west coast, several distribution centers throughout the country and shipments being made daily around the world.

Despite the changes, Chuck’s favorite part of his job hasn’t changed. He says it’s “working with the guys”. Some of his favorite memories include Kalas Christmas parties, company picnics and even the day to day moments where he gets to enjoy the people he works with.

It’s a privilege to have associates like Chuck working at Kalas for so long. We are grateful for his embracing various roles over the years, adapting to so many company changes, working hard while also caring about the people and company culture around him.

Join us in thanking Chuck and celebrating his history with Kalas!