NEWSROOM

When Rail Brand and his sister Lisa put their heads together, you never know what creativity will happen! Earlier this spring, Co-Liner LeAnn Hjelmeland put a few designs to paper for some signs Lisa could give to some of her favorite nurses and people she met at Mayo during the weeks of her cancer treatments. Fast forward a few short months, and Rail was having the nesters nest up hundreds more of these signs as they had space on the laser sheet. As pallets of these signs were being cut, no one at Co-Line really knew what the plan was. On July 3, Lisa lost her fight against cancer surrounded by family at the Comfort House in Pella. Rail and Lisa’s husband, Ron Jansen, quickly moved forward with the plan to hand out a steel “choose joy” sign to all who attended Lisa’s visitation and funeral. Always a party planner herself, Lisa would have approved of a party favor at her celebration of life!P

However, the hundreds of signs that had been laser cut, were not painted and some weren’t even bent yet. On the eve of a long four-day holiday weekend, Co-Liners teamed together and made the impossible possible. The press brake guys got right on the signs that needed bent the afternoon of July 3. Teal, one of the colors representing the type of cancer Lisa had, was the chosen color. However, teal is not one of Co-Line’s colors in stock. Tony Van Wyk made a call to Diamond Vogel Paint Rep, Dan Popma, and Dan had the paint mixed and delivered before end of day, another feat that seemed impossible! And to top it off, Diamond Vogel donated the special paint to the cause.  Tony, Josh Nikkel, and Joel Struik stayed after hours on Wednesday to get the painting done on over 1,000 Choose Joy signs. Cory Brand also needed to cut and print hundreds of vinyl stickers to apply to one of the sign designs. 

On Saturday morning, another amazing feat happened, Rail, Tana, Eric, Faye, Carter, Abigail, Cory, Heidi, Braxton, Breckyn, Brooks, and Briar Brand teamed up and packaged and applied a vinyl sticker to 100’s of the signs! A true assembly line, indeed! The jury is still out, but Rail and his numerous “breaks” giving the grandkids golf cart rides might have been our production constraint that morning. The signs were then hauled to Pella Third Reformed Church awaiting the chance to spread joy to everyone who knew Lisa.  

Over 1,000 signs have been handed out and there are still more! If any Co-Liner would like one or would like to give one to someone that has impacted their life in honor of one amazing woman, our sister, aunt, daughter, friend, mom, and wife, Lisa Jansen, please stop at the office and pick one up. Several unique stories have been told since these signs hit the streets of Pella and surrounding communities. One was even spotted attached to a hitch of a pickup in Pella recently!

Thank you to all who helped make the steel choose joy signs a reality. The Brand family appreciates your prayers, words of encouragement and sympathy, random act of kindness, memorial gifts, and most of all understanding as we figure out our new normal without our amazing Lisa!

Top customers, vendors, and special guests were invited to Co-Line’s 40th Anniversary Open House on June 6 and 7. Special thanks to all of those Co-Line employees who helped make the event a success. The facilities were tour-ready and definitely made a lasting impression on all who visited. Customers and vendors from around the nation made the trip, traveling from CA, OK, IL, NE, WI, and MO.

Visitors checked in at the newly redecorated front lobby and then made their way through the connection between office and north building, where Co-Line’s timeline, products, and culture were on display. Rick Harrill and other supervisors provided golf cart rides to guests between buildings during the tours. Tour guides then guided the guests through the tool and die area with special interest on the new UR10 robot that was running a VMC. Traveling down through the press department, guests saw our wide range of tonnage Co-Line has to offer. Quality, maintenance, paint and package, along with warehousing and spotwelding were all stops along the tour.

Representatives from First State Bank enjoyed learning about the exciting growth opportunities in the paint and powder area of the south building from Todd Johnson. The bank has been an instrumental part of Co-Line’s 40-year history, taking a chance on Rail and Co-Line when no one else would!

The new 350×200 foot addition was also announced during the tour as guests rode on golf carts through where the new building will be.

In the south building, the tour weaved its way through the flat laser department and bending department stopping at the new fiber flat lasers for some show and tell moments of what’s to come. Continuing through the new vertical storage areas, tube lasers, tube bend, folder, and welding were all areas of interest. At the quality office, Gary Smith had several fun examples of what our high tech quality equipment can do. A definite showstopper on the tour was the 16 feet tall globe highlighting Co-Line’s creativity and fabrication skills in the Projects Group area! Look for the globe to be placed at the entrance of Co-Line later this fall. The grand finale of the tour included the new paint and powder coat area. Todd Johnson shared the future plans and capabilities of that area.

Co-Line employees, including Joel Schmidt and Jeff De Jong, dig into some great BBQ at the free lunch on June 7 for employees, customers, and vendors. Guests enjoyed food and gifts and left with many positive comments about Co-Line’s facilities and team members.

“Thank you to all who made the 40th anniversary open house a huge success. The facilities were tour ready and our guests were very complimentary of everyone. Here’s to the next 40 years!”  said the Brands.

Co-Line has been working with the Pella Career Academy to build an apprenticeship program for job trades including welding. Two students from the Career Academy came to Co-Line on Feb. 13 to job shadow in the welding department. Dan Schutte met the students and gave them a tour and overview of the variety of projects and work done in the south building. The students, Tyler Sterk and Carson Reynolds, shadowed several Co-Liners during their visit.  Tyler worked with Mike Moore and Brian Van Wyk, and Carson worked with Zach McClellan and Jack Rumer (whom he knew previously from school).  The students observed several different projects and learned there is a lot more to welding than what they do in school!

Co-Line participated in the FFA welding competition hosted by Lynnville-Sully School on February 19.  The event was held in Pella at the Pella Career Academy, where 29 welding students from 10 high schools across the south-central part of the state convened to test their skills.  

Dan Schutte, Brian Van Wyk, and JT Walker served as judges for the event.  Co-Line provided the blueprints, parts, and scoring criteria for the competition. Vendors like Lincoln Electric came through in a big way to provide prizes to the first, second, and third place individual finishers.  The top-scoring school received a new Lincoln welder and welding kit, which included a new helmet, gloves, leather jacket, and other items. 

There was a wide array of welding skills displayed, and the judges had a hard time determining a winner.  In the end, Pleasantville High School scored the most points to be the first-place school.  Individual winners included: First place – Chase Collier of Pleasantville; second place – Teagen Hinrichs of Southeast Warren; and third place – Trett Langstraat from Pella High.  

The competition was an excellent way to showcase Co-Line’s welding opportunities and offered a chance for our welding experts to impact the next generation of welders!