On October 6, factories threw open their doors for thousands of middle and high school students across the state on Manufacturing Day to demonstrate that modern manufacturing is anything but dark, dirty and dangerous.

Businesses in plastics, metalwork, automotive parts and even fried chicken hosted events at their facilities to debunk old manufacturing stereotypes and showcase a variety of high-skill, high-paying jobs as future career paths for youth. Students got up close and personal with cutting-edge technology and manufacturing operations, many of them for the first time.

“Before, I thought of factories as being a place where it’s really smoky and people are really sad and it’s not like anything that you’d want to be in,” said David Pirozhnik, a student at Missouri Military Academy. “But now that I come here, everyone’s happy, they’re working together. It’s like a huge team and like a family.”