Whether it’s dirt for a tractor pull pit in Anamosa or visiting area schools to talk to the kids about what we do, Public Relations are a big thing with Wendling Quarries.  That was just the case on March 14^th of this year.  This was Pat (Oats) Trenkamps, superintendent of one of Wendling's portable crushing plants, fourth year talking to Preston Elementary 4^th grade class and the first year for LuAnn Herch, Assistant Safety and Environmental Director.

  In the past, Oats has taken the class on field trips. This year’s visit consisted of a slide presentation showing everything from land exploration to production processing to the final step of sales.  Oats also talked of his 26 years of experience in the business.  The class also watched “Dance of the Detonators,” a video showing different types of blasting.  They liked the video so much they asked to watch it two more times during the 60 minute visit!

LuAnn spent a few minutes talking to the kids about the “Stay Out Stay Alive” program to get the word out that quarries are dangerous places and are not playgrounds.  LuAnn explained that every year people of all ages are injured or killed because they went into quarries where they weren’t suppose to and had no idea how dangerous quarries can be.  Oats helped explain that while the water in quarries may look pretty there are hidden dangers like rocks just below the waters surface and frigid temperatures.

Oats also told the kids to think about future careers with Wendling Quarries.  At the end of the talk, while the kids were asking interesting questions, they were given plastic hard hats, coloring books, stickers and temporary tattoos.  A week later an envelope arrived with Thank You letters from all the kids.  By reading the letters it was pretty apparent they listened well because they wrote about all that interested them, which turned out to be almost everything.