StoneAge Tools hosts charity team-building event in Durango

Janet Mosher had two goals in mind as she planned StoneAge Tools’ annual company bonding activity: foster good company relationships and give back to Durango.

“Part of our core values as a company is giving back to our communities,” said Mosher, a longtime employee. “And this just happened to be a perfect way to give back.”

StoneAge, which makes water blasting tools, has employees all over the United States and abroad who spend one week every year meeting in-person in Durango, building relationships and working on new ideas.

This year, Mosher, the global senior customer success and sales manager, had an idea to build community inside the company and encourage youths in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programs. Teams of employees competed in a drone-building competition, and StoneAge donated all of the drones to the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Program of Southwest Colorado.

About 100 StoneAge employees, 37 of whom traveled to Durango for the event, gathered around 10 tables outside of the company headquarters.

Teams were composed of employees from every department in the company. The swiftly changing rules of the competition played to their skill sets. For example, to even the playing field, engineers were not allowed to speak and employees who work in assembly were not allowed to touch the drones.

The drone kits were not very difficult; with the instructions, almost anyone could assemble one. But the teams were not given the instructions. They were provided with parts of their drones, just a few at a time, making assembly even more difficult.

Teams were also instructed to name each drone and give it back story. After all, these were going to be donated to children.

First in flight was Team One’s “Nova,” one of five drones whose back story began in space. Team Eight’s “Simon McDrone” was close behind, followed by Team Four’s “Global Force.”

The names, back stories and flight capabilities of the drones ranged greatly. There were heartwarming stories like Team Six’s “Wall-Z,” the younger brother of WALL-E, inspiring underdogs like Team 10’s “Darwin the Drone,” who dreamed of being a helicopter, and Team 9’s “The Seagull,” which launched violently into the air, whirling in circles.

StoneAge hopes the drones will push young people who are interested in STEM to pursue it.

“Drones came up, and I thought, ‘Wow, it’s a STEM project. We are an engineering company. How cool would that be, and then donate them to Big Brothers Big Sisters to encourage STEM activities with the kids,’” Mosher said.

Jenn Bartlett, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Colorado, said StoneAge is a longtime friend of the program.

“We have been partnering with StoneAge on many different levels for many different years,” Bartlett said. “We get a lot of really quality volunteers that come from StoneAge that are either mentors for us, board members, or even some of our donors, too.”