ICYMI: Senator Hassan Tours Innovative New Hampshire Businesses, Attends Surfing with Smiles Event in Hampton

NEW HAMPSHIRE -  Yesterday, Senator Maggie Hassan toured Jaeger USA in Rochester and Tuckerman Brewing in Conway where she highlighted how New Hampshire’s innovative businesses are driving the economy and helping create good jobs for Granite Staters.

Senator Hassan also joined families at Surfing with Smiles in Hampton, noting how important it is that kids who experience disabilities are fully included in their communities.

See below for highlights of the coverage:

Fosters: Hassan tours Jaeger USA

By Kyle Stucker

U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., called during a visit in Gonic Thursday for more to be done to improve the quality of workforce training and to combat the perception that the manufacturing industry is a “dirty” or uncreative field.

Hassan made the remarks while touring Jaeger USA, which makes waterproof materials and components used by the construction, shoe and automotive industries.

In addition to outdated stigmas, Hassan said shortages in funding for career technical education programs, limited pathways for students to get on-the-job training, and the staggering cost of college education are all having a ripple effect on an industry that is important to the Rochester area and the nation as a whole.

“You can have a really good career in manufacturing,” she said. “Increasingly with automation and customization, it’s an interesting and challenging field. You can do some really creative things.”

… In addition to touring Jaeger USA’s facility and speaking with some of the company’s longtime employees, Hassan also took a look at the portion of the property that will soon be home to a 16,500-square-foot warehouse and manufacturing building.

Conway Daily Sun: Hassan visits Tuckerman Brewing in Conway

By Tom Eastman

Health care and small business tax reform and President Donald Trump's war of words with North Korea were among topics addressed by first-term Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) on a visit Thursday to Tuckerman Brewing Co. on Hobbs Street in Conway Village.

The former two-term New Hampshire governor met with company owners Nik Stanciu and Kirsten Neves to get input on taxation policies, especially regarding breweries, and other small business concerns.

Of her stop at Tuckerman Brewing, Hassan said she wanted to highlight the importance of New Hampshire's small businesses and growing craft beer industry as an economic driver for the Granite State.

… Hassan noted that she co-sponsored the bipartisan Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act, which would lower the federal excise tax on the brewing industry and streamline outdated federal regulations on the brewing of beer and cider, winemaking and distilling of spirits.

"I am here to find out what I can do to help," Hassan told Stanciu and Neves, who founded their company in 1998.

"Tuckerman's is a great business, and it has been leading the way for 20 years," said Hassan.

Seacoast Online: Surfing with Smiles delights in Hampton

By Max Sullivan

U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., stopped by the Surfing with Smiles event at North Beach Thursday, where people suffering from disabilities got a lesson in riding waves.

Hassan, who arrived after making a stop at Jaeger USA in Rochester earlier that day, said she was happy to see the community gather to help those with special needs for the event. Thursday was the third Surfing with Smiles event of the summer and drew a crowd of 90 participants with disabilities and 175 volunteers. Organizers said it may have been the largest in the event’s history. The event is in its ninth year.

“This is just a really wonderful event,” said Hassan. “What I’m hearing from families is how supported they feel. This is really fun for their children. It’s really important for kids who experience disabilities to understand what they’re capable of doing.”

Hassan’s son, Ben, suffers from cerebral palsy, and the senator said her experience raising Ben helps her understand what families who come to Surfing with Smiles go through.

“I think it helps me understand how meaningful this day is for so many families and individuals who are here,” said Hassan, “Because just a trip to the beach that so many of us take for granted can be a really kind of overwhelming task to do by yourself when you have a whole lot of special equipment and other things you’re trying to manage, too.”

Hassan said she has never surfed but that she has done plenty of body surfing in her day. She walked barefoot on the sand with a lei around her neck talking with beachgoers.

“To see this kind of community support, to see this many families out here, just tells me how special this evening is,” said Hassan.

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