The purpose of the South Carolina Salute to Manufacturing event is threefold: (1) To enhance general public awareness of the importance of manufacturing and its correlation to the creation of wealth, living standards and job creation; (2) To challenge conventional wisdom about manufacturing among young people and encourage students to pursue careers in engineering and technology; and (3) To recognize manufacturers who have made a significant contribution to their workforce, community and the state.

Produced by the Silver Crescent Foundation, a South Carolina non-profit 501(c)3 organization, the Salute to Manufacturing program includes the Salute to Manufacturing Awards Luncheon, Silver Crescent Awards for Manufacturing Excellence, South Carolina Design Challenge and Student Scholarship Awards.  At the Silver Crescent Foundation, we pay tribute to those companies that find value in achieving success in the marketplace, in their community and in the hand and hearts of their eomployees. 

Manufacturing is still the key to prosperity.  Nearly 5,000 manufacturers call South Carolina home, and manufacturing provides the backbone of the state's economy.  Why do some think that manufacturing is a thing of the past?  A partial answer probably lies in the lack of appreciation and understanding of the importance of manufacturing to our economy.  Manufacturing matters and it is critical that we strengthen it for our long-term economic viability.

One of the misunderstandings of the notion of a "postindustrial society" is that service jobs are substitutes for manufacturing jobs.  They are actually compliments.  If we continue to lose leadership in manufacturing, we will not only lose well-paid manufacturing jobs, we will also lose value-added (high-wage) service jobs.