West Bend Daily News 01/21/2015, Page A03

Maysteel Industries, LLC, headquartered in Allenton, has announced grants totaling $50,000 to Moraine Park Technical College, Slinger High School’s technical education department and United Way of Washington County.

“Maysteel as well as other local manufacturers and school districts have partnered together to form a group called the Workforce Alliance ... so educators are aware of the needs of local businesses (and) can build those needs into their curriculum,” said Kevin Matkin, president and CEO of Maysteel. “To that end, Maysteel will be supporting local educators by investing in programs that support manufacturing skills/needs.”

Maysteel’s gift of $20,000 to Moraine Park Technical College will support the school’s FACT (Forming Alliances to Cultivate Talent) program, which provides scholarships to returning students to encourage them to stay in school.

Students are “eligible for three consecutive semesters of a $500 scholarship,” said Dana Knebel, MPTC’s director of college advancement.

“It’s designed to retain students in these high-demand manufacturing programs so that, first of all, they’ll have the skills and be ready to be hired by these manufacturing companies. “It was part of a connection that the dean of our West Bend campus, Pete Rettler, had with Kevin (Matkin),” Knebel said. “They both serve on the United Way board and they had been talking about some things, some challenges with the company and how they could partner with us. They were looking at some different things and they decided on the FACT program.”

As the Daily News reported Dec. 28, the metals program at Slinger High School will purchase equipment offering the latest technology with Maysteel’s $20,000 donation Dec. 22.

“We are impressed that Slinger High School has really taken the tech ed program much further than we had previously understood,” Matkin said. “The leap Slinger is making by introducing the general business concepts around lean methodologies, profitability ... is impressive.”

Maysteel’s gift of $10,000 to the United Way signals its support for crisis and prevention programs that assist Allenton residents. The funds will be used to support the Full Shelf Food Pantry in West Bend and health, safety, and disaster services from American Red Cross of Southeastern Wisconsin.

“When we learned Maysteel’s objective was to allocate these funds in a manner that would best serve their headquartered community, we reviewed which United Way funded programs and agencies were most highly utilized by Allenton residents,” said Kristin Brandner, executive director of United Way of Washington County.

Maysteel specializes in designing, engineering and manufacturing custom sheet metal enclosures, electrical cabinets and metal fabricated assemblies. The company has manufacturing locations in Allenton and Monterrey, Mexico.

John Ehlke/Daily News

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Copyright © 2015 Conley Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved. 01/21/2015