U.S. Rep. Mike Carey, R-OH, speaks during a special ceremony held at RT Industries on Monday, March 4.
Matt Clevenger | Miami Valley Today
RT Industries has produced more than 100,000 rock and mineral kits for Ohio students over the last 27 years.
Matt Clevenger | Miami Valley Today
Taylor Hinkle demonstrates the assembly of a rock and mineral kit, during a commemorative ceremony for RT Industries held on Monday, March 4.
Matt Clevenger | Miami Valley Today
By Matt Clevenger
TROY — U.S. Rep. Mike Carey, R-OH, visited RT Industries in Troy on Monday, March 4, speaking at a special ceremony commemorating the organization for 27 years of service assembling rock and mineral kits for the Ohio Geological Survey.
The kits, which are packaged at RT Industries, include samples of 10 different rocks and minerals mined in Ohio. Sponsored by the Ohio Geological Survey, the Ohio Aggregates and Industrial Minerals Association (OAIMA) and the Ohio Mining and Mineral Education Program (MMEP), the rock and mineral kits are used by schools and other organizations to help educate students throughout the state.
“This is wonderful,” Carey said. “Thank you for the work that you guys are doing.”
“It’s very important for us to make sure that we mine these materials in this country,” he said. “When you look at the conditions that miners have across the world; whether it’s in Africa, or in Malaysia, the mining conditions are terrible, and the labor standards are terrible. But what we do in this country, and what we do in the state of Ohio, is absolutely remarkable.”
State Geologist Mark Jones, Troy Mayor Robin Oda, RT Industries CEO Ashley Brocious and OAIMA Executive Director Pat Jacomet also spoke during the ceremony, which featured a demonstration of the rock kits’ assembly by RT Industries receptionist Taylor Hinkle.
“We’ve done over 100,000 boxes,” Brocious said.
“This job is one of those types of jobs that we utilize to help prepare people for employment,” she said. “These boxes have been utilized as a training ground to help prepare our employees for employment in the community.”
“Our members really like the kits,” Jacomet said. “It’s just a great tool for kids to understand that everything around us comes from the ground; if it can’t be grown, it has to be mined.”
“Congratulations, RT Industries,” Oda said. “I love the boxes; I love that they go out into the community, and that there’s a story behind them.”
RT Industries was established in 1974 as a sheltered workshop for adults with developmental disabilities, Brocious said. The organization ended the sheltered workshop in 2019, she said, to focus on employment in the community.
“This is one of the jobs that we actually do keep still in-house,” Brocious said.
Jacomet shared a story about a local engineer he met recently, who remembered receiving one of the rock and mineral kits as a child.
“When he was in grade school, he got one of the rock and mineral kits,” Jacomet said. “That rock box started that young man on a path where he is now a mine engineer.”
