In our blog series, Casting Advocates, we get to know organizations and industry leaders who work to elevate the metalcasting profession. This installment focuses on the American Foundry Society (AFS).

The American Foundry Society is a national organization with a mission to "advance the success of its members and the metal casting industry through advocacy, education and innovation." In support of this mission, AFS works constantly to support technical innovation, advocate for beneficial policies, promote positive perception of the industry, develop workforce skills and provide a range of services and networking opportunities for casting facilities.

In our blog series, Casting Advocates, we get to know organizations and industry leaders who work to elevate the metalcasting profession. This installment focuses on the Foundry Association of Michigan.

The Foundry Association of Michigan (FAM) is a non-profit organization that works between the Michigan casting industry and state legislators, acting as a liaison and a lobbyist. When Michigan legislators propose new bills that will affect the casting community, either negatively or positively, FAM is there to galvanize member firms around an appropriate response, with the goal of keeping Michigan casting competitive locally and worldwide.

In our blog series, Casting Advocates, we explore the work of organizations and industry leaders who work to elevate the metalcasting profession. Here in this first installment, we focus on the Steel Founders' Society of America.

The Steel Founders' Society of America (SFSA) was first organized in 1902, and initial meetings were a "luncheon club" attended by a handful of casting companies from the Midwest and the East Coast. After more than a century of evolution, SFSA is now a major force in promoting metalcasting competitiveness industry-wide. Today, SFSA works to provide members with the tools and knowledge to succeed in today's high-tech manufacturing environment.

Eagle Alloy was lively and bustling on Thursday, October 4th. That's no surprise: our Muskegon, MI campus is regularly buzzing through three shifts a day, five days a week. But this particular day brought in a larger crowd than usual: in celebration of Manufacturing Day 2018 we opened our campus to local schools and community representatives for a demonstration of modern metalcasting.

The goal of Manufacturing Day is to inspire the next generation of manufacturers, and we wanted to support that goal any way we could. By inviting students to witness our work firsthand, we aimed to provide an introduction to modern metalcasting and manufacturing. After nearly 40 years in business, we understand the importance of letting young people know about the exciting potential of metalcasting careers.

Wings of Mercy is a charitable organization based in West Michigan that flies patients to their medical destinations who would not otherwise be able to travel there. Pilots and plane owners donate their time for each mission.

In 1991, Mark, Wayne Jarvis and I chose to offer our company plane to fly patients that Wings of Mercy would refer to us. Since then we have flown over 246,000 miles (about 10 times around the world) and over 1400 hours in the air. We have flown 361 flights since 1991 for Wings. Most flights are to Rochester, MN where the Mayo Clinic is located. We have also flown patients to Denver (a pediatric asthma specialist), Raleigh, NC (lung transfer specialists), Baltimore, Florida, Pennsylvania, Maine, Massachusetts, as well as many other locations. Wings of Mercy, and their 30 other planes and pilots, fly about 225 charitable flights per year.