A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Janessa Daigle, 9, left, shares the joy of goats during the Sappi picnic at Veterans Park Friday.
Emily, Shawn and Russell Bottila dig through a mound of wood shavings for shiny plastic tokens Friday evening at the Sappi company picnic in Veterans Park. They planned to trade the tokens for a frisbee and/or a wireless speaker. "So far it's great," said Russell, who had just arrived at the park after finishing his shift at the Cloquet mill.
Recent Sappi retiree Brady Nelson, left, enjoys time with former coworkers and his wife, Carla, bottom right, on Friday. Carla still works at the Cloquet mill. Find more photos at pineknotnews.com.
The goats were the hit of the Sappi picnic Friday, for those who were bold enough to lie on the yoga mat and let the goats jump over them.
But there were plenty of other things to do and people to talk to outside of work at the all-day employee picnic at Veterans Park in Cloquet. It was the first all-employee picnic since 2012, said Sappi mill managing director Tom Radovich, but it won't be the last, he added.
"One hundred twenty five years, that's a big milestone," he said of the mill's Cloquet anniversary.
Sappi is also offering community tours of Sappi as part of the celebrations, with a few more spaces open in August. (Call 218-879-2301 to sign up.)
Radovich said more than 1,000 employees and family members came for food Friday, and stayed for games, good company, and the goats, of course. There were all kinds of activities on top of free food and drink. The kids' games were another draw, he said.
"We thought, 'Well, we gotta do stuff for kids and then you'll end up with a lot of people,'" he said.
Jim Goetz, a sales professional with Sappi, was giving out promotional items made from Sappi materials to employees and their guests, including Scandinavian style washcloths.
"Just so everyone gets a flavor of what they do all day long, what it looks like in the end," said Goetz.
"You're a few steps removed from what the end product is used for," Radovich said, pointing out a Nike tennis shoe on the display.
Sappi makes the base paper for the release paper that is used to create the texture on the shoe. The paper is used multiple times. Anything made from faux leather likely uses the Sappi release paper product, Goetz added, including dashboards and overhead bins on airplanes.
"It's everywhere," Radovich said.
This year's event ran for close to nine hours, to ensure everyone could make it.
"We've had a lot of turnover and with Covid, a lot of people retired," Radovich said. "So we'll probably do this every year."
