Smith & Wesson Funds Field-trip Transport
SPRINGFIELD — Smith & Wesson Corp. announced that it donated $10,000 to the Springfield Museums in November to provide funding for field-trip busing for every third-grade public and private school student in Springfield. The funding helped ensure maximum participation in the museum program for the city’s 2,054 third-graders.
Funding from Smith & Wesson for bus transportation allowed students in approximately 82 classrooms to experience “Then & Now: Life at the Turn of the Century,” an on-site history and social-sciences program that seeks to underscore Springfield’s role as a center of industry and innovation in the late 19th and early 20th century. While attending the program, which concludes this month, students become historians as they interpret early-20th century history by examining Indian Motocycles, Rolls-Royce automobiles, Milton Bradley games, and Barney ice skates. In addition to a ‘then and now’ scavenger hunt, students handle real historic artifacts and work on a mock assembly line to better understand Springfield’s industrial past.
Mark Smith, President of Manufacturing Services at Smith & Wesson, was on hand at the Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield history on Jan. 12 to assist third-graders visiting from St. Michael’s Academy. Smith helped guide students through an assembly-line exercise and engaged students in a conversation on various methods of production.
“It was exciting to explore the assembly-line process with the students from St. Michael’s Academy,” Smith said. “Smith & Wesson and manufacturers all over the world have been relying on assembly lines to bring their products to market for over a century, and they are still a vital part of our manufacturing process today. We are proud to be able to sponsor this wonderful program helping young students in Springfield learn about our home city’s rich history and the significant role that many local businesses played in the industrial revolution.”
Smith & Wesson has been a part of the Springfield community since 1852 and remains one of the area’s leading manufacturers, employing more than 1,600 people and supporting numerous philanthropic causes. Smith & Wesson has been a major supporter of the Springfield Museums for decades. Over the past five years, the company has contributed nearly $500,000 to community history and preservation projects, namely the restoration and rededication of the Veteran’s Memorial Flag Pole and through the sponsorship of the Smith & Wesson Gallery of Firearms History at the Wood Museum of Springfield History.
