Annual Cardinal Manufacturing open house event features new developments, star power

by Beth Kraft

Dukes of Hazzard fans, manufacturing professionals and members of the Eleva-Strum community had at least one thing in common last week—they all crossed paths at Cardinal Manufacturing’s annual open house, held Wednesday evening, Nov. 19.

Hundreds converged in the shop area at Eleva-Strum Central High School to check out the student-run manufacturing company’s latest developments and to rub elbows with special guest Tom Wopat, a singer and actor well-known for his role as Luke Duke on the ‘80s hit television series, The Dukes of Hazzard.

A long line of fans looped around the “General Lee,” which made a cameo appearance in the shop that evening thanks to Eleva resident Kelly Oium, waiting to meet Wopat for autographs and photo ops. Many clutched Dukes of Hazzard memorabilia such as metal lunch boxes and boots in addition to Wopat CDs and photos, anxiously awaiting their chance to meet the star, who is also a Wisconsin native.

E-S tech ed teacher and Cardinal Manufacturing advisor Craig Cegielski said Wopat’s appearance was a “fun attraction” to encourage people to come to the student group’s open house event, held annually for the past several years to highlight CM’s newest happenings.

After students brainstormed possible special guests, Cegielski simply reached out to Wopat and everything fell into place.

“We just tracked him down with a series of phone calls and emails and a couple months, and he agreed to come,” Cegielski said.

Knowing the “General Lee” was available locally also factored into choosing Wopat as a potential guest.

But in addition to the bright-orange ‘69 Charger, Cardinal Manufacturing’s new, professional office space and freshly-painted shop were on display at the event that also featured student-led equipment demonstrations, food, and raffle drawings.

CM’s office staff has expanded to three students this year to take care of the company’s invoicing, customer service, organization, shipping and receiving, marketing, and scheduling of speaking engagements and presentations.

“Now we have formal office space,” Cegielski said. “We’re getting bigger and growing.”

Student engineering within CM is also on the rise with the aid of the new space, which allows a quiet area for students to meet and plan with customers just like any other manufacturing company.

“That’ll always be our goal—to make it just like a real, big business,” Cegielski said, noting upholding a strong sense of professionalism is key to helping the program continue to improve and expand.

Another major win for CM this year has been the receipt of a major donation from Nexen Group of Webster that intends to bring a total of $75,000 to the program.

Cardinal Manufacturing has been challenged to raise $37,500 in matching funds during 2014-15 to secure Nexen’s half of the donation—a goal the E-S program has about halfway complete.

Cegielski said CM had raised about $12,500 in matching funds going into the open house event. The group hoped to double that number with donations and raffle proceeds from that evening.

“Everything tonight that is made is for the program,” Cegielski said, noting all food and raffle items were donated to the event by businesses and the local community.

Once the funds are obtained, Cegielski says the program will be purchasing a second CNC machine in order to allow more Cardinal students to learn to use it.

“That machine is always busy,” he said. “We want to give more opportunity and produce more product, and have more capacity to make more parts.”

The CNC machine is expected to cost about $50,000. Additional tooling and equipment will be purchased with the remaining funds.

Other CM developments include plans for organizing workshops at E-S to streamline visits educating others about the program and the recent rollout of its newly-redesigned website, www.cardinalmanufacturing.org.

Cegielski says Cardinal still gets asked to do a lot of tours during the week to show other schools how the student-run business operates, but he hopes creating workshop opportunities will pare down those numbers.

“We’re happy to visit, but maybe instead of 60 visits a year it’ll be 20 a year,” he said.

The new CM website illustrates how the program works and how much it has grown in just seven years. Creating an FAQ page with basic facts about the program to get people started will also be added soon.

Speaking engagements for Cegielski and CM students are also increasing in number. Cardinal reps traveled to Chicago and Indianapolis in September to give presentations about the program, garnering more attention and a monetary lift in the process.

“People are now paying us to present, so it’s more revenue for the program,” Cegielski said. “We’re going to keep going, keep growing and keep expanding.”

Cardinal Manufacturing has worked to build professional, problem solving and tech-oriented career skills in students since 2007. The program’s students are exposed to a variety of manufacturing-related careers and work to sharpen their technical skills in an effort to address the skills gap in advanced manufacturing, giving them a leg up when it comes to starting a future career.