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Community Flocks To Stoneco Maumee As The Quarry Hosts Its First Open House Since 2019.

By Therese Dunphy

In late August, Stoneco’s Maumee Quarry threw open its doors, hosting a successful open house enjoyed by community members and a candidate for the district’s U.S. House of Representatives seat. Mia Trevino, a sales intern for the company, took the lead in planning the event, with preparations beginning in May. Like many operations, the site had not held an open house since the pandemic began.

“We haven’t been able to have an open house since 2019, so we were very excited to do it this year,” Trevino said. “Because we’re right in the middle of Maumee, we love being able to open up to the community and letting them know and see exactly what we’re doing there. We enjoy just welcoming them in to come and see the quarry. ”

Spreading the Word
After a multi-year hiatus, Trevino and the Maumee Quarry team focused on getting the word out prior to the event, spending much of the summer ensuring that people knew the open house would be back in 2022. 

“We used multiple levels of advertising,” noted Shawn Scott, sales representative for the quarry. “We advertised on Facebook and other social media, in the local newspaper, and in person. We also went around to all the local businesses in the city and passed out flyers. We had a lot of people who were disappointed we weren’t able to do it in 2020 and 2021.”

The week before the open house, they also attended a Maumee community open house and shared informational flyers about the event. “We had some amazing, positive feedback from everyone who stopped by our tent,” Trevino notes. “They were so excited because they hadn’t been there in years. Everybody seemed super excited to get out.”

The focus on promotions paid off. In prior years, the open house typically drew around 700 people. Trevino said she planned for about 800 attendees, but printed 1,000 sign-up sheets just to be safe. “We actually ran out of sign-up sheets,” she said. “I ended up counting all of the sign-ins we had, and it was a little over 1,200.”

One special guest was R.J. Majewski, the Republican candidate for Ohio’s 9th Congressional District. Trevino said Majewski was aware of the quarry prior to the event and was interested to learn more about it. “A lot of the quarry workers went and talked to him, and a lot of our team talked to him for a while,” she said. “It was a great conversation back and forth between everybody.”

Attendees could post photos from the event for a chance to win a gift basket. This was the winning photo by Mary Borgerson Bockert.

Creating Fun Experiences
Some of the activities at the open house included a sand shifting pile, a station where geodes could be cracked open, and coloring stations. The touch-a-truck activity also drew tremendous interest among young attendees who were able to climb up and honk the horn, which they enthusiastically did throughout the day. “All of the kids’ stations were awesome,” Trevino said. “Everybody loved them.” 

Throughout the day, the operation also gave away prizes such as gift cards, while a grand prize was awarded for the participant who most closely guessed the weight of the 13.5-ton boulder featured at the open house. Another successful part of the event was a Facebook photo contest, which created a positive buzz for the operation. Participants could take a photo from the event and tag the operation. Trevino and her team reviewed the posts and awarded a gift basket to the winner.

The most popular event of the day, however, was the quarry tour. They lined up three school buses which ran in circuit throughout the day taking community members down to the quarry floor. “The quarry is about 420 ft.; it’s one of the deepest in the state,” Scott explained. “It was definitely one of the highlights of the event.” 

From the perspective of both attendance and community response, the open house was a resounding success. “It’s awesome to see everybody get so excited about coming to the quarry,” Trevino said. “A lot of people wouldn’t even know the quarry was there until they saw it, so it’s wonderful to see how excited they were to go on those buses and get a tour.”

Therese Dunphy has covered the aggregates industry for nearly 30 years, while also serving multiple roles as a public official. As the owner of Stone Age Communications, she provides communications consulting services to help aggregate producers build stronger relationships within the communities they serve. She can be reached at [email protected].

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