Issue 154 July 29, 2021

AMERICAN

MUSCLE

TYLER TOUGH

Most of you are aware that Tyler Pipe has a history of giving back to our local community both

financially and with our time. But did you know that McWane Inc. not only gives in Alabama,

but also here in Smith county?

The McWane foundation granted a $50,000 donation to CASA for Kids of East Texas to assist in

their endeavor of renovating two buildings that were recently purchased by CASA. CASA had

outgrown their current building and was lucky to be able to purchase two buildings to accom-

modate for their growth. Mary Jo Burgess, Executive Director/ CEO of CASA for Kids (pictured),

reached out to McWane and many other local businesses to assist them with the renovation.

McWane was happy to give toward such a worthy cause. The grant was actually awarded in

2020, however due to the Covid Pandemic, the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony was

delayed till 2021. Both Greg and I were invited to the Grand Opening on June 18th and we were

so glad we attended. Lots of local dignitaries were present as well for this historic event.

The mission of CASA for kids of East Texas is to advocate for abused and neglected children in

Smith, Van Zandt and Wood Counties by providing court appointed trained community

volunteers who advocate for loving, safe and permanent outcomes. The new campus is

designed to fulfill the needs of children, volunteers and staff for many years to come. McWane has extended a helping hand

and supported our communities for generations. So glad they were able to extend their helping hand to East Texas as well.

On Friday, June 18th and Friday, June 25th a group of supervisors and supervisors trainees attended training classes provided by Tyler Junior College. For pretty much everyone, “training” is a four-letter word that is met with much grumbling and eye rolling. This was the case for a few, if not all of our group. However, in the end, they were all highly impressed with the training and had to admit that they appreciated being “forced” to go.

The process began when Tyler Pipe contacted the Tyler Economic Development Council to obtain help with securing tax abatements related to the new upcoming DISA molding line. While working with us to apply for various tax programs, they also suggested that we might be able to participate in a training grant through Tyler Junior College. Grant means “free,” and “free” is a word we all love to hear. We were soon put in contact with Nanci Florey who works with continuing education at Tyler Junior College. Nanci completed the grant application for us, and all we had to do was provide the trainees. It was a win-win situation for everyone.

The training was such a hit, and because there is still grant money avail-

able to us, the second round of training is currently being planned.

Many thanks are in order to Scott Martinez, Felecia Herndon, and

Victor Valle, Jr. of the Tyler Economic Development Council and

Nanci Florey of Tyler Junior College.

L-R: Manual Alfaro, Torey Bendy, Lance Lyle,

Edward Hooper, Cheryl Russell (TJC Instructor),

Kenney Lee (seated), Allan Templeton,

Hugo Alvarez, Juan Villanueva and Zach Shaw

Issue 154 July 29, 2021

Introducing Tyler Pipe’s newest recipient of the McWane Scholarship, Amy Peralta. As you may know, this scholarship is valued at a total of $8000 ($2000 per year for 4 years). You can imagine as a Parent, receiving such a scholarship is a big deal and especially if the award is coming from the company you have worked so long for. Amy is the daughter of Odilon Peralta, otherwise known as Shorty. He has been employed with Tyler Pipe for 38 years, working in the Melt Dept. Shorty is so very proud of his daughter Amy, who is the

apple of his eye.

I reached out to Amy to find out a little more about her and the following is what she told me.

She is currently attending school at Stephen F Austin Univ. (SFA) and majoring in nutrition and dietetics. Before SFA, she attended TJC where she was involved in the Presidential honors program and the Hispanic student organization. She graduated TJC with general studies in the fall of 2020. After TJC, she enrolled at SFA the spring of 2021 whereas she was recently awarded the Willie Lee Campbell home economics scholarship and the Parsetta Carnes Pruitt Memorial Scholarship. Her ultimate goal is to become a registered dietician.

Congratulations Amy! Wishing you the best of luck in your future endeavors.

Odilon Peralta

What do you do when you want to celebrate a team member

with 62 years of service and you also have to adhere to Covid

Safety measures such as social distancing, masking, etc.? I tell

you what you do, you have a popular food truck come onsite

and feed the entire plant freshly cooked burgers along with the

sides. That is exactly what we decided to do this year in honor

of Mr. James Madison obtaining his 62 years of tenure at Tyler

Pipe. Having the food truck on site was a huge hit for the

EPC team has been looking for creative ideas of how to

express our appreciation to all of our team here at Tyler Pipe.

Even though the luncheon was in honor of Mr. Madison, he

chose not to come down out of his crane to take a part. If you

remember from past articles, I had to practically threaten him

to come down and eat lunch with everyone. This year I didn’t

resort to such tactics, but just left it up to him. If you also

recall from past articles, you would know he is a very

dedicated and loyal man to his job. He believes that if there is

work to be done, than it comes first.

Congratulations Mr. Madison. They broke the mold when you

came along.

On July 5th, Tyler Pipe invited Roco Rescue from Batton Rouge, LA to come onsite and provide annual rescue training for six new team members (listed below). These six new team members worked hard to learn the basic knot tying, rigging of haul systems, and patient packaging. This training was 50 hours of both hands on and classroom training.

A big shout out goes to our newest EMT Safety Tech, Ashley Brousseau. She is not only new to the Rescue Team, but at the time of the training, she had been employed with Tyler Pipe for only two days and was excited and anxious to get her feet wet.

This training is very beneficial and critical for Tyler Pipe due to the type of work environment that is part of a foundry. As the rescue team leader here at Tyler Pipe, I am very proud of the new team members hard work and dedication to the rescue team . This training will help our team grow to be even better. Charles Bevel EMT-I/Rescue Team Leader

Ashely Brousseau

Aaron Templeton

Shawn Ramsey

Steve Stone

LaKendrick Wilkerson

Brandon Beauford

Issue 154 July 29, 2021

June 5th

, 2021 would marked the last day, after 43 years of service, Mark Atchison would

have to clock in at Tyler Pipe. He decided earlier in the year that this would be his last

year. When asked what was his plans, he replied “NOTHING”. “My plans is to do

absolutely nothing. I will get up when I want to, go to bed when I want to and just do

nothing.” After 43 years of service, he deserves just that. Mark started his career here at

Tyler Pipe back in 1978 as a Maintenance Mechanic B, which is the equivalent to an

apprentice. Throughout the years, he perfected his craft and became one of the most

knowledgeable Master Millwrights Tyler Pipe has ever produced.

Mark is a man of few words and asked that we do not give him a party or celebration.

However I did manage to get him to accept our retirement gift. Mark you will be missed.

Enjoy your retirement.

Are you interested in a chance to win a $500 visa gift card?

Well it’s easy. Just provide a copy of your vaccinated card to

our Safety department and you’ll have a chance to win.

Three lucky vaccinated team members name will be drawn in

August. So that means, you’ll have only one more chance at

the time of this publication.

It is a great feeling to have an extra $500 in your pocket and

the only thing you have to do is get vaccinated. Just ask the

lucky June winners pictured below.

Stephanie Moss Edward Hooper Boots Hughes

Tyler Pipe has a longstanding partnership with the United Way of Smith County. The United Way brings individuals, companies, and nonprofit agencies together to tackle some of our community's biggest issues. The dollars raised each year stay local and are allocated to 25 local nonprofit agencies, which collectively focus on the Health, Education, Financial

Stability and Safety for all in Smith County (see the full list at uwsmithcounty.org/local-programs).

You have the opportunity each Fall to join with other Tyler Pipe team members who support this community effort through payroll deduction. Together, our gifts combine to help thousands of our neighbors on the road from dependence to independence. Stay tuned for more details on our campaign this Fall!

The United Way also provides the 2-1-1 East Texas Call Center, which is a 24/7 information and referral help line. If you or someone you know needs help, call 2-1-1. There may be a program or organization that can help!

John Berry Director of Development / United Way of Smith County PO Box 10029-Tyler, TX-75711 / m: 903.245.1875 /

www.unitedwaysmithcounty.org

On Friday, June 11th the United Way Day of Caring celebrated its 27th annual year of assisting nearly 30 nonprofits organizations. Keeping in tradition of what we have done for many years, Tyler Pipe had volunteers present to lend a helping hand. As most of you know, East Texas Food Bank is a favorite nonprofit organi-zation that Tyler Pipe has assisted for many years. So we were elated when United Way dispatched the Tyler Pipe team to give a helping hand at the ETFB. They were able to put together after school lunch kits for kids of East Texas who may not have available a nutritious meal during the summer.

We’re giving a big shout out to Greg Buckner, Wendi Marin, Lester Kimble, Cherie Bullock and Ashley Taylor for volunteering their time to represent Tyler Pipe for such an awesome event. Way to go Tyler Pipe!

Issue 154 July 29, 2021

Cody Lawson ~ 1

Abisai Iglesias ~ 2

Kevin Davis ~ 3

Bryan Summerville ~ 3

Gilberto Albiter ~ 5

Jace Swonke ~ 5

Loyd Slayton ~ 6

David Taylor ~ 8

Sandra Smith ~ 8

Roderick Johnson ~ 9

Josh Cameron ~ 10

Johnny Coats ~ 15

Cherie Bullock ~ 16

Tony Caudill ~ 17

Sandra Paiz ~ 17

Michael Owen ~ 17

Taylor Bickerdike ~ 18

Lester Kimble ~ 19

Charles Bolton ~ 27

Robert Lee ~ 27

Ronnie Jones ~ 28

Victor Valle ~ 28

Chris Johnson ~ 30

Fredrick Tucker ~ 30

Brandon Beauford ~ 31

Eric Cummings ~ 1

Adrian Lewis ~ 1

Refugio Palacio ~ 3

Aaron Baeza ~ 5

Aaron Holbrook ~ 8

Deric Folks ~ 9

Aaron Templeton ~ 9

Mark Cox ~ 10

Dave Jones ~ 10

Anthony King ~ 10

JoAnn Loghry ~ 10

Kelvin Street ~ 11

Bobby Croley ~ 12

Mitchel Bowles ~ 15

Bob Wolter ~ 15

Ampelio Galaviz ~ 16

Tony Baeza ~ 17

Josh Essex ~ 17

Heath Huffstetter ~ 19

Mark Davis ~ 20

B.J. Shrader ~20

Ryan Miner ~ 21

James Foster ~ 22

Patrick Leonard ~ 23

Nick Wilcox ~ 25

Luis Gauna ~ 27

Chris Alexander ~ 31

Lance Lyle ~ 1

John Godwin ~ 3

Andy Alexander ~ 5

Carlos Perez ~ 6

Rayford Jackson ~ 8

Clifton Miles ~ 9

Cuauhtemoc Molina ~ 9

Bowdy Gilchrist ~ 11

Ramon Martinez-Tovar ~ 11

Juan Sandoval ~ 12

Ira Wilson ~ 12

Roberto Delgado ~ 14

Lyonel Traylor ~ 14

Ricky McDonald ~ 15

Ted Sweetman ~ 15

Ray Hunt ~ 16

Samantha Patton ~ 17

Rod Burrus ~ 21

Cheston Phillips ~ 22

Lakendrick Wilkerson ~ 22

Cris Crowell ~ 23

Jesus Vega ~ 24

Todd Hill ~ 25

Mark Rains ~ 26

Conrado Gaona ~ 29

Thurman Duncan ~ 30

Rolanda Sanders ~ 30

Ashely Taylor ~ 30

How do you cool off 300 team members working in a

Texas foundry on a hot summer day? I’ll tell you how, you

invite Pokey O’s Ice Cream truck to come on site and serve

specialty ice cream with freshly baked cookies to all the

team members.

This was one of the new ideas presented by the Event

Planning Committee (EPC) and it was a hit. All the team

members enjoyed the refreshing treat especially considering

the long hours in the heat.

The EPC is constantly looking for new ideas and I believe

this one is a keeper!