Cambridge Springs, PA - February 2006

Three executives from Tech Tool & Mold, Inc and Tech Molded Plastics LP participated in the American’s for the Competitive Enterprise System program (ACES) as part of Pennsylvania Business Week at Cambridge Springs High School during the week of February 27th, 2006. ACES is a non-profit, educational organization that promotes the understanding of free market economics to students, teachers and the general public through partnerships between the business and education communities.

Pennsylvania Business Week (PBW) is the first in-school program of its kind in the United States. PBW was developed by the Manufacturer’s Association of Northwest Pennsylvania in conjunction with Fort LeBoeuf High School in 1997. The PBW program is designed for high school students who are divided into management teams that run their own companies through a computer simulation. The students run the companies for 12 business quarters, making all managerial decisions including pricing, marketing, production, research & development, and human resources. PBW is a week long program in high schools; all day, every day. The students make business presentations to a panel of judges at the end of the week, and the program culminates in five competitions: Advertising, Stockholders, Trade Show, Return on Net Assets and Top Company.

Economics education is not a required course of study in the Pennsylvania public education system. As a result, high school students are graduating without any understanding of how the American economic system functions and how they play a critical role in participating in that system. PBW provides all participating students with an opportunity to learn this vital information by taking the program directly to the students - in their own classrooms.

Tracy Coon, Human Resource Manager for Tech Tool & Molded Plastics participated daily in the week long event as a business advisor to the students. Scott Hanaway, President/ CEO of Tech served as a judge of the student’s business plans and Mark Hanaway, Director of Sales and Marketing also served as a judge for the tradeshow portion of the event.

Additional information regarding this program can be found at www.aceserie.org.