May 6th, 2008
(Pictures by Nebraska Czechs Webmaster, Bill Drury)
VÍTÁME VÁS ! (We welcome you) greeted the Czech visitors to the CNH plant in Grand Island, NE on May 6, 2008. Approximately 30 Czech visitors arrived Tuesday morning to the plant and were welcomed by Plant Manager Steve Lee, Operations Manager Bill Baasch, Project Leader Rhett Lucke, and Product Engineer Aaron Krafka; along with tour guides Lou Fruchtl and Dick Holmquist. The visitors were excited to be there and took many pictures with the Case IH equipment.
Also on hand to greet the visitors were Donna Gruntorad, President and Ivan Valek, Vice-President of the Nebraska Czechs of South Central Nebraska & Bill Drury, Nebraska Czechs Webmaster. President Gruntorad is a CNH employee and looked forward to meeting the Czech citizens and welcoming them to Nebraska. Vice-President Valek greeted the Czech visitors and spoke to them in Czech about his family history and Czech immigrants to Nebraska. Each visitor had a nametag and many had recognizable Czech names to Gruntorad and Valek.
Plant Manager Steve Lee presented a slide program on the plant, which was then translated to Czech by one of the tour representatives. The visitors then went on a two-hour tour of the plant to see farm equipment being built and assembled in the plant. The CNH plant builds CaseIH and New Holland combines, along with New Holland hay equipment. The visitors were furnished with a lunch and had time to visit with the plant representatives before boarding the bus to visit a Nebraska farm near Worms. They spent the early afternoon visiting the farm and asking many questions about farming. The visitors were treated to American/Czech flag pins, Wilber Czech place mats, the Wilber Republican newspaper and a list of Nebraska Czechs, Inc. festival flyers. Nebraska was one of several stops the group would make while visiting the US. They will continue traveling west until they reach Los Angeles, and then will fly home to the Czech Republic. It was great to have these Czech visitors in Nebraska!
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