A great day for sauna is when a US Senator fires up a wood burning sauna stove. This is what happened this week in the small town of Tower, Minnesota.
This was the action this week at Lamppa Manufacturing located in Tower, Northeast Minnesota. Amy Klobucher, US Senator from Minnesota, came to visit the company behind the wood burning Vapor Fire home furnaces and the Kuuma sauna stoves. She received a factory tour and was able to meet several employees.
Brighter and warmer days
The visit on the sauna bench was a kind of celebration from the dark days last fall when the Environmental Protection Agency had basically forced the company to stop selling their home furnaces. An irony since the Vapor Fire continually tests as the cleanest wood burning stove made.
All eventually agreed that the heavy hand of the EPA was basically due to a technicality in testing procedures. During that dark period, the Lamppa family had contacted Senator Klobucher’s office. Amy reached out to Garrett Lamppa with a phone call on a Sunday night.
“I won’t soon forget what it meant to me, our company, and our employees to have a US Senator call me directly, offering to help navigate our situation” explains Garrett Lamppa.
Fast forward to today, and the wood burning sauna community got to see a brighter side of the federal government with Amy’s visit. They were able to talk about some of the core tenants of Lamppa Manufacturing, what the company means to the community, the environment, and by extension, all the smiles their products bring to satisfied customers.
Community development
A pessimist may dismiss Tower, Minnesota as a town forgotten in the past. Many have moved away since the town’s heyday during the mining era. Lake Vermilion, often sited as one of the top 10 lakes in the United States, is accessible pretty much right from town. However, most of the cabin and lake home owners sidestep Tower by shopping in Virginia, Minnesota, home to the big stores like Target and Menards. And many traveling to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area pass right on by Tower, on their way to Ely, MN, 25 minutes down the end of the road.
However, Amy Klobuchar and the folks at Lamppa Manufacturing have a more optimistic view of Tower’s community development opportunities. Garrett Lamppa: “Tower has a good chance to do well. There’s the new campground, and Tower is becoming a good hub as a destination for recreation and outdoor activities. We feel a real culture in the community. Me, my family, and all of our employees feel a part of it.”
Quality jobs
A key component to community development is quality jobs with US manufacturing. As Garrett communicated with Sen. Kloburchar, Lamppa Manufacturing offers consistent employment and a great work life balance, with above market compensation. Workers at Lamppa Manufacturing receive a full year commitment compared with seasonal service work that may come and go with the tide.
During Senator Klobuchar’s visit, she met with several of the employees at Lamppa Manufacturing. She was able to see first hand the quality workmanship and pride that goes into the making of the products. American manufacturing is making its way back, and Lamppa Manufacturing is a great example of this resurgence in production and design.
Green energy
For politicians on either side of the political spectrum, clean, renewable energy is a hot button. As it relates to green energy, many recognize how Lamppa Manufacturing is 40 years ahead of its time. The design of their wood burning stoves are predicated on clean and efficient wood burning technology. If one were to invest the time to listen to Daryl Lamppa, 3rd generation stove builder, as Senator Klobuchar had done, then more will understand some of the “secret sauce” behind the decades of testing and refining of Kuuma’s clean burning technology.
So, here we have a US Senator, lighting the Kuuma Stove. Coming to town to celebrate a company who is helping develop their community with quality jobs, producing green energy products.
Garrett Lamppa: “We all appreciated Senator Klobuchar for coming to see us. She got to see how our employees truly believe that the product they are making is great. There’s pride in workmanship here. US manufacturing. We love helping people feel great heat. Whether it is in their homes or on the sauna bench.”
For more information on Senator Amy Klobuchar’s visit as well as the issues that Lamppa Manufacturing incurred with the EPA, please read the article from the Timberjay Newspaper here.
Bonus
For those interested in learning more about the company and its products, please check out this interview with Daryl Lamppa: