Hancock Happenings: Builder Summit with Travis Mills, Sawmill Tours,Camp Sunshine’s Pumpkin Festival, and the Arctic Circle Conference in Iceland!
2017 Hancock Builder Summit. With a room full of over 150 builder customers and employees, Hancock Lumber hosted its first-ever ‘Builder Summit’ event, featuring SSG Travis Mills and Kevin Hancock as keynote speakers. The team kicked off the day with SSG Travis Mills’ inspiring talk. One of only five quadruple amputees from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to survive his injuries, Travis challenged the audience to “never give up”, to keep things in perspective and do so with the right attitude.
In 2013, Travis founded the Travis Mills Foundation, a nonprofit organization formed to benefit and assist combat-injured veterans. Earlier this year, the foundation opened their veterans’ retreat on 1,200 acres in the Belgrade Lakes region, welcoming 57 combat injured veterans and their families–from 23 states, including Maine–to the retreat. Travis is a true American hero, and for his incredible sacrifice, we are forever in debt. He is an inspiration to us all, and we thank him for being an integral part of the day.
Company President, Kevin Hancock, followed Travis’ act talking to the crowd about his leadership model and core mission + values of Hancock Lumber. The group learned how a series of solo trips to a remote corner of South Dakota combined with a rare, neurological voice disorder forced Kevin to stop, listen, and look inward–and, ultimately, contemplate a new leadership model for the modern age. Kevin shared copies of his nationally recognized, award-winning book Not for Sale: Finding Center in the Land of Crazy Horse.
Hancock Lumber Hosts Sawmill Tours. During the month of October, Hancock Lumber hosted a few different groups for tours at each of their three sawmills. The Northeast Retail Lumber Association (NRLA)’s Young Lumber Executive (NYLE) group stopped at the Pittsfield, ME location during their Timber Tour earlier this month, where 50 members learned more about Hancock’s Eastern White Pine operations.
Later in October, at our Bethel sawmill, 45 statewide leaders participating in the Maine Development Foundation’s “Leadership Maine” program toured our largest manufacturing facility and heard from Kevin Hancock on his leadership perspectives.
Closing out the three tours, the Kennebec Land Trust brought a group of builders and architects to our Casco sawmill as a part of a tw0-day trip. The group toured the facility with the goal of promoting more use of wood–and locally sourced wood–in construction design. Thank you to Sherry Huber for organizing this event and for our general manager, Mike Shane, for coordinating on our end.
Proud sponsor of Camp Sunshine’s annual Pumpkin Festival fundraiser. A Maine tradition since 2003, the Camp Sunshine Pumpkin Festival transforms the streets of Freeport and L.L. Bean Campus into a sea of orange. Hancock Lumber has been a long-time sponsor of this great event, helping transport pumpkins and sponsor a campus-wide event full of 10,000 jack-o-lanterns. Mascot Forest Hancock enjoyed the day hanging out with his pal, Pumpkin Pete, and friends.
#ArcticCircle2017. Earlier this month our Retail Division COO, Mark Hopkins, had a chance to represent Maine and the building materials industry at the 2017 Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík, Iceland. Along with Governor Paul LePage, the Maine International Trade Center, Eimskip, the Maine DOT, and the Maine Port Authority, the team assembled to explore ways to cost effectively transport building materials into Greenland. MaineBiz reported the event as “the largest network of international dialogue and cooperation on the future of the Arctic.”
Governor Lepage spoke in the session “The Arctic: A New Territory of Business”. During his segment he described Hancock Lumber as “an icon in our state”. Mark Hopkins participated in a breakout session along with several other Maine partners. We are excited about the collaborative effort underway to open new markets for Maine businesses in the Arctic!
Follow the conversation #ArcticCircle2017 or read more about the mission in MaineBiz’s article here.