Annual Company Picnics Celebrate Westfield Steel’s Indiana and Ohio Staff
In what’s become our favorite end-of-summer tradition, Westfield Steel’s Hoosier State personnel and their families recently gathered for our annual company picnic at Forest Park in Noblesville. It was a fun-filled day of good times and some seriously good food—partly brought to us by some of our Westfield Steel extended family.
Except for a one-year break because of COVID in 2020, this was the sixth company picnic for Westfield Steel’s Westfield and Terre Haute locations that featured a main course of smoked barbecue pulled pork.
The pork came from this summer’s Vigo County 4-H Fair auction. Westfield Steel President Fritz Pine was in attendance and determined to come away with three prized pigs raised by the children of Westfield Steel’s Plant Manger, Steve Neidermeier. With the funds from the auction going to Vigo County 4-H’s philanthropic efforts and the hard-working hog-raisers, it’s a great way to support the local community and part of the Westfield Steel extended family—and then feed the rest of our Indiana family.
A local Terre Haute butcher took care of the slaughtering and butchering for us, then froze most of the meat to save for the company picnic on September 23, 2023. An excellent supply of fresh bacon was devoured during a delicious BLT day at our Westfield plant, and the remaining 350 pounds of meat were handed over to Steve Neidermeier to prepare pulled pork for the company picnic, and also save some chops and other goodies for later in the year.
Preparing and enjoying good barbecue is one of Steve’s favorite hobbies when he isn’t serving as the plant manager of Westfield Steel’s Westfield and Terre Haute locations. He’s built his own massive smoker trailer and always enjoys experimenting with new seasonings and recipes that always leave his own family—and ours—extremely satisfied and with full stomachs. Steve outdoes himself every year and was even able to accommodate a handful of notoriously hard-to-please vegan requests with seasoned and smoked jackfruit—which one unnamed company president affectionately declared “tastes like bland pineapple, but actually not too bad!”
To keep with the farm theme, another picnic was hosted for the Ohio facility at Young’s Jersey Dairy in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Young’s is a working dairy farm and entertainment venue. The food rules are different there, so we enjoyed Young’s good food, excellent service, and the homemade ice cream.
Approximately 80 Westfield Steel employees and their family members from the Springfield facility made it to this year’s company picnic in Ohio. The kids—and kids at heart—enjoyed a bucket train, the park’s massive slide, playground, barnyard petting area, and more fun and games. Did we mention the amazing ice cream?
The company picnics are always a great excuse to get Westfield Steel’s family together outside the plants, and they are evenst we look forward to every year. Westfield Steel wouldn’t be anything near the established steel industry leader we’ve blossomed into without the work ethic of team members who aren’t afraid to work hard and get their hands dirty.
At the annual company picnics, at least, they can just lick their fingers clean.
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