Tir«$ton«
NOVEMBER • 1968
GASTONIA
NORTH CAROLINA
New Record Of Sharing Through United Appeal
total
132,527.38 -$22.02
Samuel E. Crawford and Edward Fuller, chair
men of the 1968 United Appeal campaign at Firestone,
delivered a check for $32,527.38 to the United Com
munity Services of Gaston County at a report meeting
in October.
That figure represents the
Firestone employee pledges
Gastonia, setting still an
other record in United Way
participation here. Last
year’s contribution was $32,-
240.29—a record to that time.
This year's pledge set still
another high achievement in
J^esponse to human need and
community betterment, when
ihe amount contributed repre
sented the highest per-employee
contribution in the history of
efforts here.
Average gift was $22.02, com
pared with last year’s record
$21.39. Fair-Share contributions
totaled 1,124. Total pledges put
Participation at 95.4 per cent
of the employment.
The chairmen announced that
this outstanding performance
once more entitles Firestone to
^he UA "Citizenship Award."
The plant has received this
honor for the past seven years.
UA plant chairmen, calling
the 1968 campaign response
“wonderful and heart-warming,”
said the total number giving
this year, although slightly less
than the figure for 1967, “al
lowed us to establish another
Record through larger averaged
contribution.”
THEY NOTED that year after
year we have reached higher
goals through the generous con
cern of our many employees.
“We all can be justly proud
that the money collected at
Firestone is again a major sin
gle portion of the county-wide
goal of $435,000,” they added.
Said plant manager J. V. Dar
win: "We take pride in our or
ganization and its people who
are so willing to share so much
for others. Thank you sincere
ly for giving and working to
make the UA effort so success
ful."
The $32,527.38 goes toward
helping 37 health, welfare and
other community services for
the 1969 year.
This year, for the second time,
the UA giving program was ex
panded beyond Gastonia to in
clude several other commun
ities in the county. Notable of
the added United Way serv
ices was the local unit of the
American Cancer Society.
Close to three dozen employ
ees as volunteer solicitors work
ed with the two campaign chair
men in the October Firestone
UA campaign.
• Eight contributors
among more than
1,000 who gave "Fair
Share" to the United
Appeal at Firestone,
Gastonia, won prizes
in a numbers drawing.
Incentive prizes were
provided by the com
pany and supplied
through the local Fire
stone Store.
Some winners with a portion of the prize
gifts (from left): Edgar S. Foy, shop, electric
deepfry; Walter McGinnis, fabric treating, color
television console; Estev Holden, splicing, tran
sistor radio; Annie Hubbard, spinning, electric
carving knife; Alma Glenn, ply respooling, port-
able TV; Rose Dodgen, weaving (chafer), four
Firestone Deluxe Champion tires.
Other winners; T. L. Murray, ply respooling,
power lawnmower; Linda Carpenter, ply twist
ing, clock radio.
*Bo”S Minute Man Flag
For 17 consecutive years participating 100 per cent in
purchase of U.S. Savings Bonds. In recognition of this high
achievement, Firestone at Bennettsville was awarded the
U.S. Treasury Minute Man Flag in October.
Plant manager Ralph King re
ceived the flag from James Pad
gett, deputy director of South
Carolina, Savings Bonds Divi
sion of the U. S. Treasury.
In presentation ceremonies at
the Bennettsville plant, Padgett
noted:
“Firestone, with its 17 years
of 100 per cent participation,
has achieved the best record in
Savings Bonds purchase of any
firm in South Carolina. It is a
record that each member of the
Firestone organization here can
be proud of.”
“What really earned the Min
ute Man Flag was our good em
ployees who have believed in
and supported the Savings
Bonds program so loyally,” re
sponded the plant manager.
To
Bennettsville
Among those attending the
honor ceremonies were W. L.
Kinney Jr., Bennettsville mayor
pro tem; and Charlton A.
Brown, president of the Cham
ber of Commerce.
On the blue flag is a white
Minute Man symbol, ringed
with 13 white stars symbolizing
the 13 original colonies; three
gold stars and two white stars
denoting Bennettsville’s 17
years of Bonds buying through
Payroll Savings.
FIRST
HOUSE
AND
MAYFLOWER
REPLICAS
at PLIMOTH
PLANTATION
Sigrims They Still Inspire
Our Thanksgiving Day observance, with its beginnings
closely associated with the Pilgrims and their Plymouth,
i^ass., colony of the early 1620s, is a distinctly-American
holiday.
^or more than 200 years it
I'^^ained a local holiday until
he custom of its observance be-
^^me regional. Then spreading
^eyond New England, by 1863
resident Lincoln’s proclama-
lon made it a national holiday
Worship, reunion, sharing.
Harvest Home festivities.
The Plymouth colonists ar-
jA'^ed from Europe, aboard the
^yayflower in 1620. During the
J'st winter, disease and priva-
^on reduced the band in half,
leaving around 50. The follow
ing growing season the settlers
planted their first crop. It al
most failed from drought but
was rescued by midsummer
showers.
THROUGH their untiring ef
forts, the Pilgrims had estab
lished a rather prosperous com
munity by the autumn of 1621.
The surviving colonists were
blessed with reasonably good
health and strength. They had
More on page 2
Gastonia And Firestone Plant
In NON-SKID ‘Traveler’ Series
Gastonia—an All-America City, where Firestone’s giant
plant produces cord fabric for tires. A city rich in history
and civic pride—its major economy textiles, but fast-becom
ing highly diversified.
That was part of the descrip
tion which a one-page feature
of text and photographs pre
sented in a fall issue of Fire
stone NON-SKID. And the ar
ticle dealt with the plant here,
its people, the region, and North
Carolina as a “pacesetter” state.
The company’s weekly em
ployee publication is widely cir
culated among the plants in
Akron, and at several other
of the company’s production
installations in North America.
THE FEATURE ON Gastonia
was one of a current series by
“The Firestone Traveler” spot
lighting Firestone plant cities
in this country, Canada and
other parts of the world. Ar
ticles are cast in a first-person
style of reporting.
A subsequent feature in the
“Traveler” series presented
Spartanburg, S. C. It described
the “Crossroads of the New
South,” the area, and South
Carolina as the Palmetto State
with a “hospitable heart.”
Wrote the Traveler: “Until my
arrival in Spartanburg, I hadn’t
had any grits since I left Gas
tonia.”
Planetarium
You can explore the heavens
at Gastonia’s Schiele Museum
of Natural History Planetarium
in programs scheduled every
week end — Saturdays at 3 p.m.;
Sundays, 3 and 4 o’clock.
NOVEMBER — The Outer
Planets, exploration of the solar
giants, Jupiter and Saturn. See
Saturn’s beautiful rings.
DECEMBER — The Christmas
Star. Religion and astronomy
blend in a wonderful study of
one of the mysteries of the ages,
the Christmas Star.
Regular Schiele Museum ex
hibits are open to the general
public 2:30-5 p.m. daily except
Mondays.
MUD/SNOW TIRES
Record Sales
Predicted
Almost 25 and a quarter mil
lion mud/snow tires will be
sold in the U.S. for the upcom
ing winter season. This is a
million-plus units more than
were shipped in the 1967-68
season, according to E. F. Car
ter, vice president of Firestone
trade sales.
Of the total, some 30 per cent
of these tires will be studded
(that, too is a record).
Of the more than 25 million
units which will be shipped, 16,-
900.000 will be new tires, while
7.070.000 will be retreads. About
25 per cent of the retreads will
be studded.
Firestone dealers and stores
have inventories of all types
of winter tires. These tires have
molded into the tread small
holes in which tungsten carbide
studs my be installed if the
motorist wants studded tires.
Studded tires are permitted
on highways of most states, in
cluding North Carolina and
South Carolina.
The Firestone lineup of win-
More on page 3