CLEVELAND — Students from Salisbury High School’s Advanced Manufacturing Academy visited Freightliner’s facilities in Cleveland on Wednesday to learn more about what the company does and what careers it could offer them in the future. The event was hosted by the Rowan EDC as part of a national Manufacturing Day initiative.

Jeff Allen, the senior vice-president of operations and specialty vehicles of Daimler Truck North America, spoke to the students about what exactly the company does. He listed all of the trucks the company works on, how much of the North America market the company controls and what work the students could potentially find themselves performing if they chose to pursue a career at the company.

“You’ve got to imagine, within a week, if there’s no trucks; there’d be no food in the grocery stores, there’d be no gasoline that would be delivered to the gas pumps, there’d be no money delivered to the ATMs, there could be no school buses to get kids to school. Within a matter of four weeks society would just stop without trucks. That’s how important it is and we do really take that seriously,” said Allen during a speech to the students.

The event also included a luncheon that allowed the students to network with local business and community leaders while they ate. The lunch was provided in the showroom of a Daimler building and business executives and local politicians were asked to spread out amongst the tables set up for the meal.

“Manufacturing Day is Rowan County’s biggest platform and opportunity every year to inspire the next generation of manufacturing leaders. It also positively shifts perceptions about the industry and helps to build the foundation of the manufacturing workforce here in our community,” said Kendall Henderson, director of business services for the Rowan EDC.

Among those local politicians were three members of the Rowan County Board of Commissioners. Greg Edds, Jim Greene and Mike Caskey were there to speak with students about the importance that their education and careers could have in the future of Rowan County.

“I think the best part of this is it gets to show our kids that there’s tremendous opportunity in Rowan County, so start making plans to stay here, get married here, have kids here. This is just a small snapshot of what’s going on in the community right now and it’s full of opportunity for kids,” said Edds.

Greene said he noticed the presentation’s emphasis that 21st-century manufacturing was not the same industry that he knew growing up.

As part of the EDC’s recognition of Manufacturing Day, Daimler gave tours to middle schoolers the day before the luncheon. According to the EDC, students from schools throughout Rowan County were also given the opportunity to explore Rowan Cabarrus Community College’s Advanced Technology Center in Kannapolis.