Mohawk Industries opens storefront at Junior Achievement Discovery Center of Greater Dalton

Nov. 29—After touring the Junior Achievement (JA) Discovery Center of Greater Dalton earlier this year, Lauren Sneary, the senior director of communications for Mohawk Industries, and Haley Chapman, Mohawk's community relations specialist, knew the flooring manufacturer needed to be a part of the center in some way.

On Tuesday, surrounded by Mohawk employees, several community partners and Flooring Capital Development Corp. Executive Director Anna Adamson (a Dalton chamber program) who was with JA when Mohawk first put forth its storefront idea for the center, Sneary said that promise was fulfilled during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Mohawk's storefront inside the Discovery Center at 328 Pleasant Grove Drive.

"We were so excited about it and shortly after (the initial tour), Anna let us know that there was actually an opportunity for us to get a storefront in here," Sneary said at the ceremony. "We thought 'We've got to take advantage of this and be present here.' We want to be a part of what JA is doing for the kids in our community and the future of our community."

The JA Discovery Center, which opened in 2021 adjacent to Hammond Creek Middle School, is one of six discovery centers across the state and serves moer than 10,000 students annually by combining concepts learned in the classroom with a fully immersive experience. The center houses two Capstone programs for middle school students, JA BizTown and JA Finance Park, where students work together to build financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills.

Several businesses and institutions from different sectors of the Dalton and Northwest Georgia community are represented at the center, including storefronts for Shaw Industries, Ford of Dalton, Dalton State College, Georgia Northwestern Technical College, Chick-fil-A, Builtwell Bank and Hamilton Health Care System.

While the official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Mohawk Industries storefront was on Tuesday, the storefront has been available for students and visitors since September.

"We got the ball rolling and got Mohawk leadership psyched about it and on board, then we got the contract established," Sneary said. "Then I promptly went on maternity leave and kind of just had to say 'Good luck' to (Chapman) and the entire engineering team and 'I hope it looks good when I get back.' Well, here I am back again and it looks fantastic."

The storefront features information regarding all facets of the carpet industry, including engineering, tufting and the "lingo" involved.

"I really want to shout out the people who made the magic happen on this," Sneary said. "The (Mohawk) finance team; Girl Creative, who helped with design; and (Megan Michael, an engineering intern at Mohawk) and the engineering team. At the beginning of this project, I wasn't entirely sure if the engineering team had an artistic background, and I think Kenny Morton, our (vice president) of engineering, took that personally because he came to my office and said, 'I have some ideas.' As you can see, those ideas came together so beautifully. It really was a bunch of folks coming together so that we could be a part of more Mohawk here at the JA Discovery Center."

The storefront also includes a lift truck simulator, where students can experience what it feels like behind the wheel of a forklift inside of a carpet plant.

"It's something that we actually have as part of our training and safety procedures, so we already had lift truck simulation software created for Mohawk from an employee standpoint," Sneary said. "So we just repurposed it here. It sounds like it's been a great success; I think the only frustration has been that the (students) have a lot to do when they come in for the (BizTown) or the Finance Park activities, so they can't actually play with it for very long."

Sneary said she hopes the storefront will help students see the carpet manufacturing industry through a new lens.

"We really thought about our vision for this project and we really wanted to make it representative of Mohawk, not the Mohawk you may think you know, which might be 'stodgy and good at what they do, but maybe a little bit boring,'" she said. "People think they might know what Mohawk's about, but we wanted it to represent the Mohawk that we know. The Mohawk of today and the Mohawk that is going to take us into the future, and that's exactly what this is.

"This is about doing more for the community and doing more with the incredible resources that we have. The opportunities that we have across the spectrum, from robotics and manufacturing processes to sales and design opportunities to careers and sustainability and (information technology). It really runs the gamut and we wanted to make all of that clear here. What better place than the JA Center to do more for the future of our communities. We're really excited to be a part of it and we're so thankful for all of you who had a hand in doing this."

Caroline Frost, the Junior Achievement director of volunteer partnerships and experience, spoke a few words to end the ceremony.

"The whole (Mohawk) team did such a fantastic job and I'm so proud to have you guys here," Frost said. "We really want this to be a reflection of the community, which is what the JA Discovery Center is designed to do, to reflect the community and the opportunities that are here and showcase them to students and the community. We're so proud to be a really true representation of the opportunities that are here in Northwest Georgia, with our roots stemming in the carpet industry but branching out all over. We are so grateful and so excited to embark on this new partnership together."