Meet Common Ground Awardee Center Rock, Inc.

Brandon Fisher and Richard Soppe at the San Jose mine near Copiapo, Chile. (Jorge Saenz/AP)

The Common Ground Awards are this week (November 11)!  This is the last in our series profiling the 2010 Awardees.

We are in the final countdown to the 2010 Common Ground Awards, where we honor outstanding accomplishments in conflict resolution, negotiation, community and peace building. Recipients have made significant contributions toward bridging divides between people, finding solutions to seemingly intractable problems, and providing inspiration and hope where often there was none.  Center Rock, Inc. embodied this ideal this fall, volunteering their time and expertise to help turn a probable tragedy into an inspiring story of human resilience and cooperation.

Center Rock, Inc. is a small manufacturing company located in Berlin, Pennsylvania.  As NPR reported in this story, the company—founded by Brandon Fisher in 1998—reached out to authorities to offer their help when they heard of the 33 miners trapped nearly a half-mile underground in Copiapo, Chile.  As reporter Jennifer Szweda Jordan explains, Center Rock was uniquely equipped to help rescue the workers:

Center Rock’s [low profile] drill heads have bits that pound rock as a drill rotates – ideal for the hard, dry volcanic ground where the miners were stuck. [Director of Construction and Mining Tools Richard] Soppe started calling Pennsylvania officials and others to convince them their equipment could save the day.

After getting the go-ahead, Soppe and other employees headed off to Chile. They worked days at a time, until they literally fell asleep standing up. After 33 days, it paid off.

In an AP report, Center Rock employee Tom Foy had a deeply personal reason for working to free the miners: he himself was trapped in a similar mining accident in Pennsylvania for over three days in July 2002.  Center Rock also helped to free those miners, and they were eager to help again this time, as Mr. Foy explains:

Center Rock volunteered to help in Chile after officials there confirmed the miners were still alive Aug. 22, but said soon afterward that they expected it would take until Christmas to dig a rescue shaft.

“They said, ‘Well, heck, they ain’t getting out till Christmastime, and I know and [Brandon Fisher] knows and we all knew we could get down to them faster than that,” Foy said. “We proved that Center Rock is a little company, but they do big things.”

In a story that captivated audiences across the world, Center Rock, Inc. provided innovative equipment and dedicated manpower to help solve a seemingly insurmountable problem.  We are proud to honor them this year with a Common Ground Award.

Image via Associated Press