been blessed with a sanitation crew that I respect that has made my plant clean enough to have a tour anytime and not be afraid of how the plant looks. It has been an amazing ride and surely does not seem like it has been 20 years. Thank you! Randy Mike Ward (B-Shift Production): The first thing I realized was Crest Foods had air conditioning when I started in September of 1994, and it was heated in the winter. After working a previous job for 31 years where I worked outside, in temperatures in the 90’s and high humidity in the summer and an actual -27 below and a lot of 20 – 70 be low zero wind chills, really made me appreciate a controlled temperature workplace. My first boss was Jim Lyles who instilled in me the Crest Culture. I have worked in Mix and in Production. I have stacked, dumped and shuttled. Being part of the First Responders was just an extension of my 20 years of volunteer work I do with the Mt. Morris Fire and Ambulance. I truly enjoyed working with people at Crest – it must have been noticed as I was asked to be a mentor for new employees. I was deeply honored to be asked to mentor our 10 new employees from Kosovo, not only into Crest as a work place, but into the American way of life. As I will be receiving my 20 year ring, I remember my 10 year Crest Foods vacation trip to Hawaii with my wife to see our son in the military. Someone on the plane asked what “Crest Culture Club” was. I told them it was the work culture of where I worked; a small company 100 miles west of Chicago in a very small town. After 10 years they give the employee their “vacation package”, and that is why I was going to Hawaii. Quite a few people around me mumbled something like “for only 10 years – I work for the wrong people”. One other thing, if you are reading this after December 31, 2014, I have now retired! Jenny Loomis (A-Shift Production/New Employee Mentor): I actually have two favorite memories of my 20 years at Crest. The first one is when I was still working in town. I was feeling down about a job change and I mentioned it to Jeff Meiners. He told me: “Do you know what Crest Foods is made up of ? Good people and you are good people.” My second is when I became the A Shift mentor here at the West Facility. I love doing this! I love meet- ing people and I hope I make them comfortable. Thank you Crest Foods for a great 20 years! Candy Koch (QA Administrative Support): I came to Crest Foods because the company I was working for was relocating its operation south. I remember working on the line that first day. I went home thinking I will never be able to pack and keep up on lines. I have done many jobs through my twenty years at Crest and have seen many changes through the years as the company has grown. The memories I still laugh about: When the warehouse guys and gals hid Tom Balch in an empty tote. They told me it was a rush for the plant. I should have known something was wrong...something was telling me it was not right. I went on to sample the ingredient and out jumped Tom and away I ran…I had to stop when I reached the block wall! The warehouse guys and gals had a good laugh that day. Another was when I had to be drug tested on a day we had a new customer visiting. We had a trial going on and my boss (Dawn Summers) had been busy with the new customers. She called into the plant looking for me. I had Deb Worley tell her I was given a three day suspension. She had a melt down on the phone. After a few minutes she must have heard us trying not to laugh. I THINK I am still paying for that one…Thanks for the last twenty years of laughs! Steven Crook (Lab Product Development Leader): Over the years I have seen many changes. At one time we had three shifts of production in the Packaging Division. Also, the mixers were in the Main Plant dump areas. There was no new mix facility and no Karlin Warehouse. The Wet Lab for lab batch testing was located in the middle of the Main Plant in production areas until new office and testing areas were built. And the North Plant on Main Street still had livable apartments located at the West end of the block!
January, February & March 2015 Crest Ink 3
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