When you look at the U.S. Capitol on Inauguration Day and the officials in attendance, a lot of what you saw has Michigan ties.
When President Biden took the oath of office, he was standing on a stage built by a Michigan business, and the thousands of masks with inaugural logos printed on them, those were made at a business in Plymouth.
“It happened all really quickly," said Becky Zbozen, COO of Hatteras Inc. in Plymouth. "It started with a couple of emails, a couple of phone calls, and then all of a sudden it was, 'We need these right away.'"
“To watch the inauguration and see these masks on TV and all of the awesome things that Ford has done for the people providing the PPE equipment, it’s just really exciting to be a part of it,” Zbozen said.
Hatteras Inc. in Plymouth and Ford produced 15,000 masks with custom inaugural logos worn by those who attended.
Most Michiganders may not have actually been there, but Michigan was definitely well represented on this historic day. The stage in which President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took the oath of office was built by Christman Company out of Lansing. They’ve been building stages for presidents to stand on and take the oath of office since 2009.
“It’s a real source of pride," said Christman Company president and CEO Steve Roznowski. "It’s just a really cool feeling knowing that behind the scenes the dirty work was all done by our folks out there starting several months ago."
This wasn't the first inaugural for Christman. “The first was President Obama’s first term, and we’ve done it every time since,” Roznowski said. "So, two Obama terms, President Trump, and now President Biden."
“We all are trying to do our best to get through this pandemic, and so this was a really exciting thing to happen during the pandemic," Zbozen of Hatteras Inc. said. "So, anything we can do to bring a spotlight to Michigan or Detroit, we are happy to be apart of."
