Pyrex marks its 100th birthday in Charleroi
People were lining up Saturday morning to have their photographs take with a giant Pyrex measuring cup on display Saturday in Charleroi to kick off the brand’s 100th birthday in the borough where the glass is manufactured.
Janet Hamilton of Carroll Township, left, and Marsha Gibson of Charleroi “raise their glasses” to Pyrex for their photograph during the brand’s 100th birthday party Saturday in Charleroi, where it is produced by World Kitchen.
World Kitchen employees pose with the company’s chief executive officer, Carl W. Warschausky, third from left, in front of a giant replica of a Pyrex measuring cup.
CHARLEROI – Marsha Gibson said her relatives have worked at a Charleroi glass factory since the 1930s when it was known as MacBeth-Evans Co.
The Charleroi woman said her mother later worked at the same plant for Corning Glass and before it was purchased by World Kitchen, where the popular Pyrex brand is still being produced.
“I think it’s wonderful,” Gibson said Saturday, when World Kitchen hosted a party in Charleroi to celebrate Pyrex’s 100th birthday.
A band played live music while the company dished out free pancakes and sold specially made measuring cups at discount prices to mark the event. The centerpiece of the party was a giant plastic version of its signature measuring cup, where former Corning workers and others lined up to have their photographs taken with the vessel.
World Kitchen has an incredible relationship with Charleroi because of the expertise in glassmaking that has been passed down through the generations in the borough, said Carl W. Warschausky, the company’s president and chief executive officer, who also posed for a group photo in front of the giant cup.
“Most of this is geared around a thank you to our employees and Charleroi,” Warschausky said at the party that kicked off a yearlong U.S. tour of the big measuring cup.
Charleroi Mayor Mark Alterici said it was exciting to see the many people at the party who are former Corning employees.
“I know it sounds corny, but it makes me proud,” Alterici said.
Thomas Seal, president of the union representing about 350 World Kitchen employees, said former Gov. Bob Casey and state Rep. Peter J. Daley, D-California, were credited for helping to save Corning Glass in Charleroi by securing state money to expand the plant in the late 1980s.
“If it wasn’t for that, we wouldn’t be here today celebrating the 100th anniversary of Pyrex,” said Seal, president of United Steelworkers Local 53G.
Nearly 1,000 pancakes had been given away by 1:30 p.m. in the borough Market House before a “torrential downpour” made people seek cover, said Charleroi Borough manager Donn Henderson.