the fight against breast cancer. We are celebrating some Ser-vice Anniversaries this month. Dario Nanni (Belvidere) will be celebrating his 5 year anniversary. John Mullin will celebrate his 5th year as well but if we would count all his years, he would have more than me. Corey Bryson and Shelia Huspon of Hum-boldt will celebrate this 10th

year with Pierce. I would like to congratulate everyone who is celebrating a service anniver-sary this month. Let’s continue to focus on re-ducing costs and making the customers happy.

Well, summer is coming to a close whether we want it to or not. If you have children or grandchildren, they are back in school or preparing to go. My son, Bob (Belvidere West), is heading back to Illinois State for his sophomore year. Meggie begins her last semester of school at Illinois State, then an internship with the States Attorney’s Office before she hopefully heads to law school. The economy still seems to be sluggish which has af-fected the plants. Each General Manager is working with their teams to reduce cost. It seems that the only

plant that is still busy is Hum-boldt. This is due to a consoli-dation effort by Komatsu. I don’t need to tell everyone how much volume is down when you see it every day. We all need to keep working together to keep our customers happy. We are active in donating money to the communities that our plants are located. We will continue, but due to the eco-nomic slowdown, we will be picky. I will still support the Cicero Mayas which I believe keeps these young boys busy and off the streets. I also will continue to do what I can to support Boylan and Ho-nonegah High Schools. Of course, I will still participate in

Kevin Hogan Writes...

Jack’s Words

of Wisdom…

If you want to enjoy the

rainbow-you must first put up with the

rain.

Kevin Hogan

Our C. O. O. Writes... This subject definitely is not my favorite contribu-tion to our Company Newsletter, but it is unfor-tunate reality that war-rants this announcement. Due to the current eco-nomic situation we have decided to consolidate resources and move our Aurora customer base into our Bolingbrook and Belvidere-West facilities. We will be moving the Doosan business to Bolingbrook beginning September of 2009. We will also target the Carraro operation to Belvidere West with a mid Septem-ber target date as well. This will result in the clo-sure of the Aurora facility sometime in late October of 2009. I would like to thank eve-

ryone for their efforts in Aurora and assure every-one that this is strictly driven by economics and nothing more. Some of the current Aurora personnel will be transferred to Bolingbrook but unfortu-nately, we currently can’t absorb the entire work-force. I would like to personally thank everyone at the Aurora facility for their hard work and dedication to Pierce Distribution Ser-vices. Some of these as-sociates have been with Pierce for an extended period of time and we wish all of them the best in their future endeavors.

Pierce would like to wish Bette Hogan, wife of Director Tom Ho-

gan, and mother of Kevin and Tom, Jr., a very happy 86th birth-day. Ms. Bette celebrated her spe-cial day with friends and family on

August 22, in Rockford. Again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!

WE LOVE YOU.

Dino McNabb

Happy Birthday Bette Hogan

My opinion and experience recalling the history of the

stock market and the parts ser-vice business during the years

1965 to 2009… To me the economic down turns are like a person gaining and losing weight as they grow from childhood to a mature adult. For many of us the older we get the heavier we get with some good weight gains, some ridiculous weight gains, with periods of small weight loss, and some peri-ods of rapid weight loss usually followed by weight gains that exceeded our original max weight. Is not the Dow Jones Industrial Averages very similar? For me, the histogram period of interest of the Dow Jones Indus-trial Averages starts in 1965 with an average for the year at 975. International Harvester is doing very well. At work, overtime is abundant and you can walk out of one place of employment and get hired in another very quickly. In 1973 the Dow Jones set an all time average high 1051.7 on 1/11/73. In 1974 the same Dow Jones had a fourteen year low of 577.6 on 12/6/74. If I remember correctly we had quite a period of layoffs and re-calls from 1974 to 1983 with small market growth. In 1985 Dresser industries and many other investment corporations were buying companies looking to shed some expense. Dresser

John Bednar Writes... Page 2

John Bednar

Industries bought the construction equipment division from Interna-tional Harvester Company. The years 1992 – 1994 experienced another downward trend in the stock market and the 1.2 million square foot Komatsu-Dresser Dis-tribution Center was relocated to Ripley Tennessee (now the Koma-tsu America Parts Distribution Cen-ter). The stock market recovered somewhat after 1994. To my recol-lection the stock market again started to retract from 2000 – 2002 and our Komatsu corporate offices went from decentralized to central-ized. We all know the growth pe-riod that began in 2003 until 2008. Between the years 1965 and 2008 we experienced at least four sig-nificant markets down turns that lasted from one year to four years. You know how emotions play in our weight gains. I see the emo-tions of the stock markets much the same way. Our economy is very capable of withstanding these market swings or moods just as we do in our personal lives. Just as we are better in a given weight range, so is our economy when moving to the market correction for another period of growth. The history of the stock market as I recall may be subject to factual corrections. The history I have seen of the quality and growth of industries like Navistar, Komatsu, Gehl, LBX, and Pierce Distribution Services Company as it reacts and anticipates market growth is excit-ing to see with the higher levels in service improvements. Our bodies and industries go through period adjustments that are generally needed. I am looking forward to the end of this major market adjustment and how the new era of business im-proves.

SEPT. BIRTHDAYS

SEPT. ANNIVERSARIES

9/12/77 9/17/93 9/20/93 9/17/97 9/22/97 9/16/99 9/21/99 9/09/02 9/01/04 9/13/04 9/19/05 9/26/05 9/15/06 9/04/07 9/17/07 9/17/07 9/02/08 09/02/08 09/08/08 09/08/08 09/08/08 09/08/08 09/08/08 09/15/08 09/21/08 09/22/08 09/29/08 09/29/08

2 7 2 3 3 7 7 3 C 2 8 7 7 5 7 7 2 2 1 2 6 8 6 8 6 5 6

Brenda Smith Angel Vasquez Silvina Aceves Robyn Fryman Teresa Jones David Workinger Leticia Medrano Bernice Ulrich Mark Spetly Dario J. Nanni Moe Jordan Dario L. Nanni Cynthia Mena Tony Strawn Pablo Ruiz Laura McBryde Richard Carisalez Winter Norris Gordon Parks Elia Arroyo Landon Boyer Clint Krumwiede Jennifer Mareska

05 05 06 09 09 10 10 14 18 18 19 20 20 21 22 23 24 24 26 27 27 29 30

6 3 3 5 7 6 2 6 3 6 7 2 8 7 3 2 2 2 5 3 5 8 4

Name Day Plant

Carol Monti Paul Holland Jorge Perez Elia Arroyo Juana Huerta Corey Bryson Shelia Huspon Tereso Cervantes John Mullin Dario L. Nanni Richard Jones Freda Russell Ray Brown Jerry Vanlandingham Gracie Mathis Warcelia Simpson Donna Bonetti Carlos Chavera Matt Jurasek Froylan Sandoval Vernon Sims Larry Sindelar Brenda Smith Kelsey Rogers Kyle White John Cheak Mathew Chapman Jeff Hisson

Name Day Plant

PDSC SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM ANNOUNCES…

Page 3

Eric Garcia, of Joliet, Illinois, renewed the PDSC scholarship to continue at the University of St. Francis College in Joliet, for the Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 semesters. Eric’s elected field of study is Business. Eric is the son of Alicia DeAnda and Primitivo Garcia. Ms. DeAnda is an associate of Plant 3 in Bolingbrook, Il. Eric has averaged taking 18 credit hours per semester and is carrying a cumula-tive GPA of 3.50. We know that Eric and his parents must be very proud of his academic success. Congratulations to you, Eric Garcia, and your Pierce Family wishes you the best of luck in your future.

Alberto G. Alcantara, of Woodridge, Illinois, renewed the PDSC scholarship to attend the University of Illinois at Chicago, for the Fall 2009 and the Spring 2010 semesters. He will be entering his fourth year with a major course of study in Electrical Engineering. Alberto is the son of Alberto D. and Ruby Alcantara. His father works at our Bolingbrook, Illinois facility. Alberto has averaged 15 credit hours per semester and is carrying a cumulative GPA of 4.0. We know that Mr. and Mrs. Alcantara must be very proud of Alberto’s academic success. Congratulations to you, Alberto Alcantara, and your Pierce Family wishes you the best of luck in your future. Keep up the good work.

Noemi Aceves, of Joliet, Illinois, renewed the PDSC scholarship to attend the University of St. Fran-cis for the Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 semesters. She will be entering her third year with a major course of study in Accounting. Noemi is the daughter of Silvina Aceves who works at our Boling-brook facility in Illinois. Noemi has averaged 14 credit hours per semester and is carrying a cumula-tive GPA of 3.09. We know that Noemi’s parents must be very proud of her achievements and hard work. Congratulations to you, Noemi Aceves, and your Pierce Family wishes you the best of luck in your future. Keep up the good work.

Annamarie Jenkins, of Rockford, Illinois, has been awarded the PDSC scholarship to attend Rock Valley Community College for the Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 semesters. She will be entering her first year with a major course of study in Psychology. Annamarie is the daughter of Chris Cacciatore who works at our Corporate Office in Loves Park. Annamarie is a graduate of Rockford East High School where she was actively involved in fundraising and played softball. She was also successful in ac-complishing two years of perfect attendance in her high school years. Congratulations to you, Anna-marie Jenkins, and your Pierce Family wishes you the best of luck in your future. Keep up the good work.

Carley Strawn, of Dyersburg, TN, has been awarded the PDSC scholarship to attend Tennnessee Technology Center in Newbern, TN for the Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 semesters. She will be enter-ing her first year with a major course of study in Nursing. Carley is the daughter of Tony Strawn who works at our Humboldt, TN facility. Carley is a graduate of Dyersburg High School where she was actively involved in FCCLA and Chimes for Charity. She also served as a reporter for her school. Congratulations to you, Carley Strawn, and your Pierce Family wishes you the best of luck in your future. Keep up the good work.

Yexing Yang, of Sun Prairie WI, has been awarded the PDSC scholarship to attend the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI for the Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 semesters. He will be entering his first year with a major course of study in Chemical Engineering and Computer Science. Yexing is the son of David Yang who works at our Corporate Office in Loves Park. Yexing is a graduate of Sun Prairie High School where he was actively involved in National Honor Society, Acedemic Decathlon, Science Club, Wind Symphony, Jazz Band, Marching Band, Full Orchestra, Cross Country, Track and Field, Math Team, (to name a few) all while being very successful in 11 advanced placement studies. Con-gratulations to you, Yexing Yang, and your Pierce Family wishes you the best of luck in your future. Keep up the good work.

Belvidere West Writes... Page 4

Greetings from Belvidere West! August in Belvidere feels more like autumn than summer this year but I’m not complain-ing. August also means the kids are going back to school and football is drawing near. Here at the plant we are preparing for our new customer, Carraro Drive Tech Spa. Carraro will be occu-pying 10,000 sq. ft of the facil-ity. The first shipment left Italy on August 14th and should arrive in late September. The initial ship-ment contains 3159 lines and 400,000 pcs. with more ship-ments scheduled in the near fu-ture. This is a welcome challenge when you consider the current state of the economy and the many woes that all of us have felt recently. Congratulations to the Pierce sales staff and Dino

McNabb for putting the agree-ment together. Other news in the plant includes the unbelievable business that AxleTech continues to ride. In August, our open order board doubled to over $46 million. This is the highest level ever in the 6+ years that AxleTech has been in business. Military orders dominate the scene but the aftermarket business has stayed strong as well. I am proud of all the associ-ates that work on the AxleTech account considering all circum-stances and high work load, and our metrics have maintained their high levels. This is especially true in our inventory accuracy. Cyndie Messink and the cycle count team have the YTD $ variance at 100% and pcs. variance at 99.87%. Out-standing! Of course this is not Larry Hickey

Erin Sparrow

Summer is almost over and the heat has finally arrived in Illinois. It has really been a weird season weather wise. We had the cool-est July on record with lots of rain and thunderstorms but we are making up for it now in August. I would think the farmers’ crops will be high yielding this year in our area. With the current heat brings extra warm temperatures in the warehouse. Please remind your associates to stay hydrated to

ward off any potential problems the higher temperatures can bring. Pro-curement has slowed down a bit for the last couple of months; however, it looks like we will be picking up soon. There are currently three as-sociates working in Procurement: Maida Uribe, Scott Cernoch and me. Up until July 31st we had four in our small group but unfortunately we are reduced by one due to cir-cumstances beyond our control. Scott and Maida have really

stepped up and took on extra responsibilities in order to get the orders out on time. They have been simply amazing!!! I am blessed to have such a great Team that is very reli-able and works well together. We continue to see the “whatever it takes” attitudes. Keep up the good work!!!!

achieved by just cycle counting but by everyone doing their job right the first time from receiv-ing to shipping and every step in between. The rest of the plant is suffer-ing along with our customers. Sales have been down in most areas forcing us to watch our spending in all areas. Nobody keeps me on my toes in this area more than Carol Monti, my Office Manager. Carol has seen the ups and downs at Pierce and knows what needs to be done. She keeps her eyes and ears open and is full of ideas on how to help the company and she lets me know about it. Keep up the great work Carol!

Hello from AxleTech Customer Service. Another month has come and gone. It’s hard to believe that summer is almost over. Our CSR’s have continued to stay busy entering just over 1400 new sales orders in July. We were able to meet our shipping goal in July and are working very hard this month to meet the goal again. This is accomplished by coming together as a Team and working hard to provide the best possible service for all of our cus-tomers. Recently, our Customer Service

Team participated in training for a new AxleTech program named PETE. This is a new web based database program used to track the status of new parts which will be set up in VAM. We would like to thank Tina Alread – Senior Sales Manager with AxleTech for spending two days working with our CSR’s on the training. I think it was well worth the time we spent on the training. We have a much better idea of the flow of PETE. Although this program is in the beginning stages, I’ve heard some really positive com-

ments about the program. We look forward to the next round of enhancements. On a personal note, I would like to congratulate Laura McBryde for returning to school this fall. Laura is taking a few night classes this semester at Rock Valley. As everybody knows, education is extremely impor-tant. Good Luck Laura…..we know you will do your best! Until next month….keep up the great Teamwork!!

Courtney Bottcher

Bolingbrook Writes... Page 5

July has come and gone and we are finally getting some summer like weather in the Chicago area. Temperatures in the nineties have been a real rarity. It does keep the energy bills down and the comfort levels up. Contrary to the rest of the country, global warming is a tough sell at Plant 3. I am hoping for a continuation of this great weather for the balance of the summer. I do not want to jinx it, but receipt levels are up slightly. I am hopeful that this is a trend that will lead us back to better volumes. I believe it is an indication that we have hit bottom and we are in a recovery. My concern is that this recovery may take many months to occur. Once again, I am very proud of our crew at Bolingbrook. We have reduced our staff and hours over the summer, but production has

remained steady. We have also managed to remain on target with our customer metrics. This is also attributable to our supervisory staff that has remained focused on the task at hand and not been distracted by almost constant changes. At long last, the football season is set to begin. I, and a lot of guys like me, do not do well without football. Once the gun sounds at the Super Bowl, we begin to look forward to the next season. It is always a long wait and after the Stanley Cup, the time even goes slower. So now that the extensive dark season draws to close, we can all rejoice that finally the pig-skins are flying again.

Tom Hogan

started 3rd and moved to 2nd then back and forth from 1st to 2nd—just a great race until the caution flag was shown. While under the caution the number 1 Pierce machine lost steering—the night was over. It seems the contact from the heat race damaged the drag-link and all steering was lost. Glad it happened under cau-tion. 7-25-09 - started the heat 4th and finished 4th. Started the feature 8th and moved 4 spots to finish 4th place. Au-gust 1st rained out again. We found a few things we want to try with the chassis this week. Hopefully, it will be to our ad-vantage. I'll keep you posted.

6-25-09 Clayhill Motorsports - 38 Super Latemodels packing 800+ horsepower in-vaded Clayhill Mo-torsports on what

they call the "Hell Tour". That’s racing 27 days out of 30 straight, which takes them to several states and different tracks. Some of the biggest names in the business were there for the 50 lap shootout. The number 18 car of Jack Sulli-van jumped to the lead and held that position until coming out of turn 4 on lap 40 where Superstar Billy Moyer, Sr. driving the number 21 machine, leapt to the front of the field and went on to claim the $6,000 paycheck for 1st place. The number 1 Pierce Camaro started the heat in 8th and finished 4th; started the feature in 10th and finished 4th. The changes to the suspension this week really

helped. 6-27-09 Clayhill Motorsports - Started the heat on pole and WON!!!!. Started the feature on pole and lead 4 laps when the 2nd place car slipped into the right rear tire causing it to go flat. My crew replaced the tire without losing a lap. I restarted in 22nd position and 6 laps later finished in 6th place. The car is really coming around and hopefully soon will have the finish that we strived to reach. 7-4-09 Clayhill Motorsports -What started out to be a barnburner Modified Race with 41 entries completing for a $2,000 dollar to win feature soon fell like the rain from the clouds. Rained out. July has been very strange—cool and wet. July 11th rained out. July 18th started 6th in the heat race and won it but had some contact with another car on the last lap. Feature time came around and I

Tennessee Racing

Randy Pratt

Pierce Recognized

During the July 25th Roscoe Rush game, Pierce was presented with a commemorative jersey which was autographed by the Rush players. It was a token of appre-ciation for Pierce being their num-ber one sponsor. Accepting the gift for Pierce was L-R Dario Nanni Operations Mgr., Belvidere South; Dino McNabb, COO; and John Bednar, Executive General Manager.

Hello everyone!! As we see an in-crease in 90 de-gree temperatures, so does our ship-ping order vol-umes. Despite be-

ing below our volumes from 2008, we have seen a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel this summer. Since the month of June, we have stayed consistent averaging 335/lines per day and 7300 lines for each month. August has started off somewhat slower than previ-ous months, but we still have half a month to go. Let’s hope that drier and warmer conditions bring us more volumes. On July 31st, I ruptured my Achil-les tendon while playing basket-ball at the YMCA. I’ve been play-ing basketball regularly for about a year now and felt really great. For

Lexington Writes... Page 6

Carlos Montoya

those who never seen or know of anyone who has ruptured an Achilles, let me tell you, this is no walk in the park. I had my surgery on Aug. 4th and I am now going through the recovery stages. De-spite going through physical an-guish and emotional distress, I’ve learned a few things along the way. -Never take it for granted when you can walk to the living room with a cup of water in hand. Try to do it with crutches. -There is a reason why I prefer showers over baths. Can’t get used to sitting in the tub with my leg propped up on the side of the tub with a garbage bag over the injured leg. -Now matter how serious your injury, there is someone else that has it worse than you; a cancer

patient or a terminal illness. -This is a time when your loved ones come together and show you how much you are loved. It is hard to stay positive when you read all the negative pub-licity regarding an injury or ill-ness, but I’ve been learning to focus on the important things in life. My first thought was that I wasn’t going to be able to play basketball or softball for a very long time. I didn’t even think about the negative im-pact it was going to have on my family or my job. I can look back on it now and truly say that I’ve been humbled by my experience.

Hello from Plant 5. As we wrap up the sum-mer months, I would like to take a mo-

ment to reflect on the how grate-ful we are for our customers. Although things have slowed down considerably from this time a year ago, we are still striving to meet and exceed customer ex-pectations. We have maintained an error rate of .07% for the whole year. There is always room for improvement. We have implemented a couple different ways of insuring the accuracy of production, such as having our packers not only double check-ing the parts visually but also writing down on the pick lists the

Sam Cardwell

quantities of the parts packed along side of the corresponding line. This almost forces the packer to associate the part with the quantity. Short shipments are our number one source of errors. I felt that if we could cut down on our short shipment errors we could cut our error rate in half. I know to err is human, but I feel that there should not be any er-rors shipping wise, especially when two different people handle every order. Quality is another area that we are focusing on here at plant 5, not to say that we were not before, but now we are putting more of an emphasis on it. The first thing that the cus-tomer notices is the appearance of the carton or box that the parts are in. There have been a couple of instances where the customer has returned something because the box that the part was shipped in was damaged. We open the box and that part is fine. I know that it left our docks intact but we should just assume that once it

gets to the UPS hub or the Fed Ex hub that they are go-ing to drop kick it in their trucks and body slam the box down their conveyor system. With the amount of orders that we are shipping every day, there really is no room for mistakes. We are going to make it our priority to in-crease efficiency and accu-racy. Again, not that we were not before, we now have a little more time to do so be-cause of decline in orders. This has given us the perfect opportunity to tighten up any loose ends. I would like to thank all the employees from Plant 5 for their hard work and dedication. They are the ones who have put in the time and effort to help achieve our goals. Good job everyone and keep up the good work.

Everything here at Plant 5 has been going good. We have been doing many bin checks and cycle counting. Eve-ryone is also pitching

in where they are needed. We have had excellent team work despite the hot temperatures. Just remember everyone to keep hy-drated and keep up the good work. Also, I would like to say wel-come back to Carlos. He was off due to a ruptured Achilles tendon. I am glad your surgery went well and with your determination you will be back on your feet soon. GOOD LUCK!!

Lexington Continues... Page 7

Sheri Sontag

We would like to say Happy Birthday to Joey Boston!! We celebrated his birthday at the end of July. Happy Birthday again Joey and for many more birthdays to come.

We would like to say Happy Belated Birthday to our leader Carlos Montoya. Even though we did not get a cake because you were off we still want you to re-member we didn’t forget. Carlos was celebrated his birthday in August on crutches. We are glad to have you back and know your road to recovery will be a long one and remember we are here for ya when you need things carried or moved.

Hello every-one! Well now that summer is al-most gone and the kids are back in school, football is here. GO PACK-ERS!!! Here at

Plant 6 we are preparing our-selves for our physical inventory coming up in October. This physi-cal inventory will last for two days with 50 employees. Twenty of the employees will be from our facility and the other 30 will be coming from Navistar. We have been pretty steady here at Plant 6 pushing the orders out for our soldiers. We have also been working hard to be ISO compliant before the New Year and from the looks of it we are going to make it happen. All of our associates have been through the training and have a good idea of what exactly ISO is about. GREAT JOB!!!! Plant 6 has come a long

Dario Nanni

way since the first days of being open here in Belvidere. It has been very interesting watching us grow and become a team.

tion Team (Team Members: Matt Jurasek, Dario Nanni, Jennifer Grothman, Virgil Sansone, Penny Almanza, Joshua Green, Marcus Fos-sett). In addition, Tracy Schmitt (Plant 7 – Humboldt) and her quality staff are work-ing very hard to ensure they are ISO compliant as well (Good Job)! “Commitment to Quality” A basic commitment of all associates and management should be to continuously pur-sue quality improvements. To achieve the most effective improvement efforts, manage-ment should ensure that the organization has ingrained in its operating principles the understanding and goals that will lead to the company’s overall quality objectives. Good quality leads to in-creased productivity, reduced quality costs and overall prof-itability for all.

Belvidere South Writes...

ISO 9001:2008 Certification Pro-gress…The ISO 9001:2008 certifica-tion process is moving along very well. Executive Management se-lected Procurement as the first to be

ISO certified with Plant 6 to follow. Larry Hickey and his procurement staff are working diligently to meet the end of year deadline set by the Procurement ISO Implementation Team (Team Members: Larry Hickey, Erin Sparrow, Virgil San-sone, and Scott Cernoch). Plant 6 as well has been working diligently to meet the end of year deadline set by the Plant 6 ISO Implementa- Virgil Sansone

Hello from Plant 6! We have had quite an odd summer here in Northern Illinois. In the month of July, we did not even reach 88 degrees which is

not normal. This is not a good summer for swimming which is my favorite summer activity. Now it’s already time for the kids to start back at school and pretty soon fall will be here! I was recently “locked up” for Mus-cular Dystrophy. My “bail” was set

Belvidere South Continues...

Page 8

Jennifer Grothman

for $800.00 which is enough to send one child with Muscular Dystrophy to summer camp. I was able to raise $606.75. I would like to thank everyone for their donations!!! We have been keeping busy here at Plant 6 accomplishing the tasks that Navistar gives us. Just as soon as we get product in, we are turning it around and getting it right back out the door! I hope everyone enjoys what’s left of the summer!

Hello from Humboldt TN. Along with the temperatures…..the work here is heating up. Over the last couple of weeks we have shipped Moe

Jordan (Operations Manager) along with Ray Stover (Komatsu warehouse supervisor) to North-ern Wisconsin. In between eating cheese and watching really bad football, Moe has been assisting Ray in the movement of service parts from Komatsu Forest to our facility to be packaged, then onto Komatsu Ripley. I appreciate the hard work and long hours these men have been putting in. It is really noticeable when the parts arrive here in Humboldt in great order. I would like to thank Matt Jurasek (Pierce General Manager Plant 6) for sending, out of his plant, on short notice, three awe-some associates, Vernon Sims, Marcus Fossett, and Joshua Green to assist with this process. We couldn't have done it without your help. This month we cele-brated Tracy Schmitt's (Corporate Safety Director/Quality Supervi-sor) 10 year anniversary. Over the years it has been a great pleasure

Jay Hogan

to watch Tracy grow, not only as an associate, but also as a per-son. Her attention to detail, loyalty, and sense of urgency is second to none. Congratulations Tracy, I'm looking forward to the next ten! This month we also sent my oldest son TJ, not to northern Wisconsin, but to kindergarten. This was very anti-climatic considering this is his third year at the University School of Jackson (cubs, pre-k, and now K). It was still special. He was also the first student to write his name on the lost tooth poster board in his classroom. Football season is right around the corner, and I can't wait. Go Bears, and go Michigan State! I hope all is well, be safe.

Hello from Tennessee! The summer has been easy on us so far; not the normal hot and dry. We have been

getting plenty of rain and the grass needs cutting every 4 to 5 days. The work is flowing nicely here at Plant 7. The turn time is good along with safety and quality. We have a great Team with a “do whatever it takes attitude”. We will be re-ceiving 16,000 lines of Koma-tsu Forest in August. These are parts for tree cutting ma-chines. The machine cuts the tree, strips the limbs, and stacks it. Ray Stover (Komatsu America) and Moe Jordan are heading up this project. They will be on the front lines in Green Bay, WI loading this work up and shipping it to Ten-nessee. We are very thankful for this work and look forward to the push of something new. Thanks to all associates for the hard work.

Humboldt Writes...

Mark Strawn

Jailbird Jennifer

Muscular Distrophy Lockup

TJ Hogan First day of

Kindergarten (With his two front teeth)

Hello from Plant 7! Work has been pretty steady here at the plant. We will soon get even bus-ier when the Koma-tsu Forest arrives. We have had many

birthdays and anniversaries. 401K is still being signed up for along with insurance plans. Normally around this time of year we here in the south write about the HOT temperatures, or the lack or rain. This year it is quite the opposite. The temperatures are not unbear-able by any means, and the rain

will not stop. On August 12, 2009, Don Thrush and associates from Komatsu Chile came to visit and tour the facility. Jay Hogan and Mark Strawn both helped with the tour. Well, I’m officially a Godmother. We took a quick trip up to Duluth, MN the weekend of 8-10-2009. The ceremony was beautiful. Kendra did-n’t cry one bit, however Shane was a little nervous holding her over the water. He does like the sound of Godfather though.

Humboldt Continues... Page 9

Service Anniversary

Jodie King

BIRTHDAYS FOR AUGUST!

MARCELLA COLE 7-26-2009 (2ND FROM

RIGHT) AND JACKIE FREEMAN (2ND FROM LEFT)

7-27-2009

TYRONE HUSPON 8-5-2009, MARY NEW-

MAN 8-12-2009, AND TABITHA CHAN-

DLER 8-15-2009

Jodie and Shane King pictured with their goddaughter

Kendra.

TRACY SCHMITT Mark Strawn congratulates Tracy to

honor her 10th year Service Anniversary.

ASSOCIATE OF THE MONTH:

REBECCA LOCKE Tracy Schmitt states: “Rebecca Locke is one of the most exceptional people I have met

throughout my years working here at Plant 7. She began in Komatsu Forklift late last year “helping out” when busy and performed such an exceptional job that when an opening spot became available, she was my first choice to fill this spot. Ms Rebecca always has a positive attitude and is willing to do whatever it takes. In a short period of time she has completely learned all processes and can go on without skip-ping a beat when alone. With her hard work, positive attitude, and complete dedication to excellent job perform-ance, I was more than proud to nomi-nate her as associate of the month.”

Moe Jordan is pictured with one of Ko-matsu’s Forestry machines. Moe has been assisting in the movement of ser-vice parts from Komatsu Forest in Green Bay WI to our facility to be pack-aged, then onto Komatsu Ripley.

Moving Parts

Tony Chiodini

Humboldt Continues... Page 10

From Our CFO ... Wellness & Prevention Newsletter Au-gust 2008 Each month Williams-Manny Mid-west, provides The Wellness & Prevention News-letter to you as a free service for distribution to your employees. The newsletter includes informa-tion on health, wellness, nutrition and disease.

This month's topics include: LONGEVITY SECRETS - Tips from the world's longest-lived residents

EATING WELL - Less Salt, Lower Blood Pres-sure - Herbs and spices make great salt substitutes

EATING WELL RECIPE - Fruit Kebobs with Honey Lime Yogurt Dressing

FITNESS - Time For A Workout Change? - How to battle boredom

FISCAL FITNESS - Street-smart secrets for saving some cash

STRESS LESS - Work Smarter, Not Harder - Time-management skills that pay off

SAFETY - Walking To School - 9 things to teach your child

TAKE CARE - What You Should Know About - Informed consent AUGUST HEALTH OBSERVANCE - Cataract Awareness Enter: http://www.midwestlifeandhealth.com/wellnessnewsletter.html

Did you know ac-cording to the Bu-reau of Labor Sta-tistics in the past year there were 5,488 fatalities due to occupational

injuries? There were 1,158,900 injuries that required the associate to have days away from work. If you were to combine these injuries with the “minor” injuries that occur in the workplace the recordable workplace accidents would be in the vicinity of over 4 million. These numbers are astonishing. There is however, a way to prevent work-place injuries through understand-ing and analyzing potential haz-ards and accident causes. Man-agement is certainly at the lead of this effort but it takes associate involvement for complete success. I read recently 10 ways to stimu-late associate involvement in

safety prevention and aware-ness.

Assign associates respon-sibilities for certain action in-volving inspecting and analyz-ing their own work areas.

Lead by example; wear proper PPE, practice required safety procedures, share po-tential safety hazards with your associates.

Explain the “why” of safety to all associates so they fully understand that hazards put their own personal health and safety at risk.

Strive for the commitment from each associate that safety is everyone’s number one pri-ority.

Always set clear firm stan-dards for workplace behavior and enforce the standards fully.

Train each associate so Tracy Schmitt

to download this month’s issue. Employee Resource Center Key Features: -The Health Resources section features in-formational links on fitness and nutrition, sen-ior health, kids’ health, prescription drugs, emergency resources, health calculators, mental health, disease risk assessments, and health information from the world’s largest medical library, the National Library of Medi-cine. -The Financial Resources section presents articles about budgeting and saving, college planning, kids and money, taxes, credit and debt, retirement planning, insurance, invest-ing, leasing vs. buying a car, purchasing a home and getting a mortgage, and making a will. -The Other Resources section offers tips about local volunteer opportunities, charitable giving, motor vehicle safety, vital records, and weather warnings. -The Employee Resource Center is de-signed for all age groups, and content is ap-propriate for children and adults.

To log into the Employee Resource Center, visit our web page and log in using the following credentials: http://www.midwestlifeandhealth.com/erc.html

Username: wellness Password: erc

that they have all the needed information and they are able to develop the necessary skills enabling them to work safely and avoid accidents.

Acknowledge positively the associates who identify hazards and take the steps to correct them.

Respond promptly to all reported hazards taking the im-mediate steps to correct them. Be persistent; remind all associ-ates that accident prevention is an ongoing challenge for us all. It must be focused on daily, al-ways improving, setting new safety objectives, and making steady progress towards achieving our safety goals. Share your commitments as we all strive for a safer workplace environment.

Cindy Mena

Joshua Moorehead

Belvidere East Writes... Page 11

Rob Feltner (Traffic Manager), Dawn Haenert (Inventory Super-visor) and I were contestants on a local Comcast trivia game show called “Absolute Zero” – named because the game sub-tracts points, rather than award-ing them. There were 3 rounds, each with 18 questions totaling 54 questions of trivia on 3 cate-gories. The first round was bloodsuckers, the second round was sport movies and the third round was miscellaneous ques-tions. We had 5 seconds to re-spond with an answer by buzz-ing in. Each contestant started at 200 points and the aim is to get the lowest points and advance to the “Six Degrees Below Zero” final round where Rob Feltner ultimately ended, sweeping the game. Questions like, “What was the first vampire film which hap-

pened to be a silent film?” and “What snake is feared the most among people in South Africa?” were asked in the first round. Dawn Heanert answered every vampire question perfectly. At the end of the second round, I asked myself, “I wonder who she really is once the sun goes down?” It was definitely a unique experience as we represented Pierce Distribution Services. Rob Feltner ended up taking home the grand prize of the Famous Sock Monkey, an old-fashioned hand crafted monkey doll, made in Fox River Mills in our very own community of Rockford, Illinois. The sock monkey has become a piece of “Americana” over the years.

L-R above-Absolute Zero Host, Rob Felnter, Dawn Haenert,

Joshua Moorehead. Below—the FAMOUS SOCK MONKEY

able asset to our company, so on December 8th, 2008 we hired her full-time as a Pierce associate. Her first job here was a UPS packer. Shortly after that we moved her to our Pick/Pack posi-tion, which means she picks the orders and packs it as well. She has excelled in this position, with a 60 lines per hour average. Kate has been trained to backup numer-ous positions, such as delivery of customer orders, processing of Canadian orders, and LTL orders. Kate is a vital part of our Shipping Department. Thank you Kate, for all you do! Congratulations!

Here at plant 8, we are pretty steady these days. There is al-ways something new and excit-ing to learn on a daily basis. I would like to thank AnaYeli, Mar-tina, and Yolanda for pitching in through out the different areas of receiving when needed. These three ladies are very knowledge-able at what they do. Also I would like to congratulate Ed Prignano for joining the Pierce team recently. Ed is the main man for binning in Receiving and is capable of keeping the floor spotless and keeps our turn times low. Ed is an enjoyable person to work with, and I hope to keep him around for many years to come. HI KATE! I hear you won employee of the month. You deserve it, kid. Keep up the great work, Kate. It is also that time of year when we start getting our children ready for school. My children can’t wait to get back to school to see their old friends and make new ones this year as well. I’m

also glad they are going back; my two growing boys have just about eaten me out of house and home this summer. My littlest one will be going into the 7th

grade and attends RESA middle school; my oldest one is on his last year of high school and at-tends East High. My, how time flies by so quickly when you have kids. I try and treasure ever minute I have with my kids and enjoy the small moments, but I’m ready for that break …..Parents out there in Pierce Land always remember to; “Draw a circle, not a heart, around the ones you love because a heart can break and a circle goes on forever”.

I would like to take this time to congratulate Kate Krumwiede. She is our “Employee of the Month”. Kate started working here on September 8th, 2008 as a Staff On Site associate. She proved that she was a very valu-

Roland Thompson

Kate Krumwiede

Asso

ciate O

f the Month

Belvidere East Continues... Page 12

Rob Feltner

Our season is coming to a close for 2009. We are currently 10-3 with one game re-maining. We were able to pull off the

upset of the year as we defeated the Racine Raid-ers who are 7 time National Champions, and have been around for 85 years. We defeated the Raiders 17-14. The Raiders were undefeated at the time we played them, and we were huge underdogs for this game. The game itself looked like it was over when we trailed 17-15 with less than one minute to play, but we were able to get the ball back for one last drive and it paid off. Our kicker Herculano Dacosta kicked a 57 yard field goal as time expired to give us the 18-17 victory...this play gave us some na-tional media attention as it was played on Sports Illustrated.com and ESPN showed it as a top 10 plays of the week. We also held two different youth camps this season, because we had 211 kids

signed up for our football camp...the camp keeps growing every season. We are also proud to an-nounce that for the second year the Pecatonica High School Football Players were able to make enough money through the concessions that none of their players will have to pay the $225 registra-tion fee in order to play football. Over the last two seasons the Pecatonica Athletic Department has been running the concessions to raise money for the school’s athletes. Also, on a side note, I would like to thank Comcast Cable for allowing a few of us to participate on the game show, which is called Absolute Zero. The trivia show gives members of the community the opportunity to play for some bragging rights. Joshua Moorehead, and Dawn Haenert joined me as we represented Pierce on the show...some of the questions were tricky, but I was thankful for the sports movies category. All in all it was a fun time!!

Hello! My name is Edward Prignano. I started working with Pierce through Staff on Site April 14, 2009. Last Monday, I was hired in as a Pierce employee. I work in the receiving department binning parts. I was a licensed Funeral Director for 25 years be-fore retiring. I was having way too much fun being retired so I took a job here. Great people, fun place to work!

What a great sum-mer evening it was to watch the Rock-ford RiverHawks play against the Florence Freedom on Saturday, Au-gust 15, 2009. It was a close game, and therefore great fun to watch the RiverHawks win 7 to 5. There were lots of activi-ties going on for the entire family.

There were four mascots: Roco RiverHawk, Tommy Hawk, Hammy, and Hammer walking around getting everyone involved and just having fun. Pierce Associ-ates Chris Cacciatore, John & Melinda Bednar, Martin Contreras, Dawn Haenert, Cynthia Mena, Felicita Nambo, Joshua Moorehead, & Renee Hagan (from Cor-porate, Plant 2 and Plant 8 combined) came with friends and family members, and everyone had a great time. This is definitely an event that everyone enjoyed and would positively go back to. We want to thank Pierce for purchasing the tickets and for allowing everyone to have this great experience that we will all remember for a long time. We definitely appreciate it.

Please Meet

Edward Prignano Linda Bednar Chuk (John Bednar’s Daughter)