Watch a video of the celebration!
Wednesday, July 1, was a wonderful day, as HydraForce hosted 35th Anniversary celebrations in several locations while maintaining safe social distancing and wearing of masks.
At a short outdoor ceremony at Plant 1 in Lincolnshire, Tony Casale (Executive VP – 31 years) introduced Jim Brizzolara as he rode into the parking lot on a JLG scissors lift to express his heartfelt “thanks” to each and every HydraForce employee for making his and Dick Fontecchio’s vision of our company a reality. Then Tony presented Jim with a surprise – a 35th anniversary service award! Jim was also pleasantly surprised to see several retirees in the audience, who made a special trip to attend the celebration and participate in a group photo of our 25 to 35-year employees.
At Plant 3 in Vernon Hills, employees presented Jim with a portrait of the HydraForce Founding Fathers – Jim, Dick Fontecchio, and Ron Reuter. The portrait was hand-sketched by Manifold Engineer Ron Arreola, who is a self-taught portrait artist. The portrait was presented to Jim by several 25-plus year employees in the front lobby of P3 – Taurino Flores (Testing Lab – 31 years) Kevin Huspen (Product Management – 29 years) and Sam Bloodgood (Product Management – 25 years).
At HydraForce China in Changzhou, a vocational skills competition was held on the manifold assembly lines, with scoring, judging and prizes awarded to the teams completing all tasks successfully. Employees enjoyed a box lunch and birthday cake, then the events ended with aerial photography of the words “HFC” and “35” combination of employees lines in front of HFC building.
We wish all of our employees continued growth and progress with HydraForce in the years ahead.