User talk:Vyb5b/blenko project

Mission Statement
The Blenko Project is dedicated to recording the past, analyzing the present and being an advocate for the growth and preservation of BLENKO GLASS in West Virginia.

Blenko Glass Company, Inc. History
The company's name comes from William Blenko, a British glass maker, who shipped glass to American stained glass studios. He came to the United States in 1893 and started a glass making business in Kokomo, Indiana, producing glass for church windows and related uses.

He returned to England in 1904 and then made two more attempts to establish a factory in the United States. He used British glass workers in Point Marion, Pennsylvania, in 1909, and Clarksburg, West Virginia, in 1913, but was unable to make a success of these operations.

In 1921 at the age of 68 he began a new effort in Milton, Wv., and was joined by his son, William H. Blenko, the following year. Seven years later at the height of the depression, William H. Blenko could see the necessity of producing some other product, and secured the services of two experienced Swedish glass workers. This enabled the company to enter a new, wider, and highly promising field of handmade decorative glass. William Blenko died in 1934, but he had lived to see the tide change. The decorative accessories and the beautiful stained glass windows utilizing Blenko glass are now known all over America. This tradition has been continued by William H. Blenko, Jr., who joined the company in 1946 and his son Richard D. Blenko, who joined the firm in 1976.

The factory attracts thousands of visitors every year from all over the United States as well as foreign countries. Here they can watch the molten glass take its final form as Blenko craftsmen practice their skilled art. The Visitor Center features a Designer's Corner of nine leading stained glass windows and the Blenko Museum of historic glass. Also, there is a "garden of glass", surrounding a three acre lake for visitors to enjoy.

Friends of Blenko
'Friends of Blenko' are a group of like-minded adults who spend some of their time volunteering at BLENKO - assisting staff with keeping the grounds, enhancing the 5 acre lake area, labeling the plants and developing programs that would teach children about the history of Blenko and Glass Making in West Virginia as a part of their visit to the Blenko Museum and Visitor Center. They are friends of this company that has played such a monumental part in West Virginia's hand crafted glass. Blenko is a treasure that we, as a community, need to embrace. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vyb5b (talk • contribs) 09:35, 17 July 2011 (UTC)