15th annual WMIA awards program yields two firsts. (Trends & News).

The Woodworking Machinery Industry Assn. honored the winners of its Innovator, Educator and Global Marketer of the Year Awards at a banquet held Oct. 22 in Sonoma, CA.

Innovator of the Year: Lewis Lumber Products Co., Picture Rocks, PA;

The 2002 winners are:

Educator of the Year: San Marcos High School, San Marcos, CA; and

Global Marketer of the Year: Sandberg Furniture, Los Angeles, CA.

Lewis Lumber Products became the first company specializing in solid wood processing to win the Innovator Award in the annual program's 15-year history. Likewise, San Marcos High School is the first high school woodworking program to be designated WMIA Educator of the Year.

Lewis Lumber Products grew out of its sister company, Dwight Lewis Lumber Co. It is a secondary wood processing facility that sells to both wholesale and retail markets, specializing in flooring and custom moulding profiles, including fine hardwood moulding and paneling. In presenting the award to Keith Atherholt, Lewis Lumber's president, WMIA President Heinz Schmidt said, "Its management attributes its productivity, plant efficiency, new product development and market growth opportunities directly to its imported high-tech woodworking machinery and equipment."

San Marcos High School's woodworking program, led by Alien Brent, program instructor, gives its students a breadth of training and quality of preparation that qualifies them for a wide range of woodworking job categories. The school has developed partnerships with the local woodworking industry and is a member of WoodLinks USA. Students recently made and sold Adirondack chairs to benefit the family of a U.S. soldier killed while on duty in Afghanistan.

Todd Hammer, a member of WMIA's marketing committee, said, "Quality education is achieved only by institutions and teachers willing to make a serious, long-term and visionary commitment, and a strong industry commitment to support them. California's San Marcos High School more than qualifies on this count."

Phil Sweet, vice president/manufacturing for Sandberg Furniture, accepted the Global Marketer Award. He said exports represent about 10 percent of the company's $50 million in sales of promotionally priced bedroom furniture, international markets include Mexico, Asia, Canada, the Middle East, Russia and South America.

John Park, chairman of the WMIA's marketing committee, said, "For a U.S. furniture manufacturer to not import foreign-made product, but to successfully market promotionally priced product made here to overseas as well as to domestic markets certainly warrants industry recognition. Sandberg Furniture has more than earned its stripes in this extraordinarily competitive arena."