Thor Industries is sending teams of employees in actual RVs and carrying Lego versions to teach eighth-graders about the RV industry as part of the new Learn Engage Achieve Perform (LEAP) Program.
This story by Marshall V. King originally appeared in the South Bend Tribune.
Students in Wa-Nee, Fairfield, Elkhart and Jimtown districts are touring the RVs and then trying to build them with Legos on an assembly line.
“I’ll get to meet more than 1,000 students in May alone,” said Rick Schutt, Thor’s director of community engagement.
Next year, the program will likely expand to the remaining Elkhart County districts and perhaps others in the region.
Last week, Schutt stood in a Vegas model of a Thor Motor Coach and told NorthWood Middle School students about slide-outs, powered beds that lower from the ceiling, and interior design. He emphasized that Thor’s 19,000 employees worked together to design and build the units. “We have careers in our industry where you get to decorate all the different RVs,” he told a group.
Thor employees tell the students that they need engineers, accountants, purchasers and designers. “Where you live in Elkhart County is the RV capital of the world,” said Schutt, noting that nearly 85 percent of all RVs are made here.
