M.R. Mold funnels funds for industrial arts to local students

BREA, Calif.—Rick Finnie, named Mold Builder of the Year by the American Mold Builders Association, has picked the junior high school in Brea—the headquarters city of his M.R. Mold & Engineering Corp.—to receive the $5,000 that Progressive Components gave him to support an education program of his choice.

Finnie grew up in Brea, a town outside of Anaheim. When he contacted Brea School District Superintendent Brad Mason, Finnie was pleasantly surprised to learn that Brea Junior High school has industrial arts classes.

Just before the school year started, Finnie met with Derek Ordlock, the industrial arts teacher, and got a tour of the classroom. Ordlock explained that the money he was getting from the school district as support no longer was available, and the class was doing fundraisers and getting contributions from their parents to buy materials for the metal shop.

Finnie presented the check to Ordlock on Sept. 17.

Finnie spoke to the junior high students about the importance of learning any trade, especially manufacturing. He brought out his own metal shop projects from junior high in the Brea classroom, and told the students that he went from doing simple things in metal shop to "cool things" like mold cores and cavities in his own shop.

M.R. Mold makes injection molds for liquid silicone rubber and thermoplastic molding, including insert molds, molds for overmolding and micro molds. Progressive Components is based in Wauconda, Ill.

M.R. Mold also was the first-place winner in AMBA's 2018 Educational Outreach Awards, which the Indianapolis-based trade association announced on Oct. 3. AMBA noted that the mold maker started its Manufacturing Day activities in 2015 by hosting 30 students. Now M.R. Mold does a Manufacturing Week. This year, it welcomed 215 students from the Brea School District during events Oct. 2-4, plus 150 students from other area districts, according to Geri Anderson, marketing manager of M.R. Mold.

AMBA said the mold maker's staff also developed new programs, including its first formal, three-month internship program and a fourth-grade mentoring program.

The first-place award for Educational Outreach comes with a scholarship of $1,000, which will go to M.R. Mold's educational program of the company's choice. The decision on where that money will go had not been made yet, Anderson said on the same day AMBA announced the news.