Contact:

Tom Evenson, (608) 266-2839

FOND DU LAC – Governor Scott Walker visited Mercury Marine and the Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts in Fond du Lac today to highlight the importance of investing in a local “creative economy” when it comes to attracting talent and developing Wisconsin’s workforce.

“Wisconsin is working – in fact, at 3.2 percent, our unemployment rate is the lowest since 2000,” Governor Walker said. “Our focus has shifted from creating new jobs to finding skilled workers to fill them. To tackle this issue, major businesses in Fond du Lac, like Mercury Marine, came together to invest in the Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts to enhance the community and make it more attractive to the skilled millennial workforce.

Some of Fond du Lac’s largest employers, including Mercury Marine, JF Ahern, CD Smith Construction, Grande Cheese, and Michaels Corporation, worked together to fund and build the Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts. They believe arts are an important component of any community attempting to attract the millennial workforce. With the Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts, Fond du Lac has a “creative platform,” which serves as a magnet to attract the creative designers and engineers needed by local businesses.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, for the past two years, Fond du Lac County has seen sharper growth in tourism spending and total business sales than anywhere else in Wisconsin, rising by 6.71 percent from $132.2 million in 2015 to $141.1 million in 2016.

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