Marion Body Works in the running this year

Marion Body Works Fire and Emergency has been nominated for the Coolest Thing Made In Wisconsin 2021.

The local company hopes area residents will vote for their fire trucks as the Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin.

The first round of voting runs from Wednesday, Sept. 15, until Tuesday, Sept. 21.

Go to the Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin website to vote for Marion Body Works.

Contest rules allow individuals to vote once per day per device, so someone with a laptop and a smart phone can vote once on each device each day.

The contest not only brings attention to all the cool things made in Wisconsin, but also the career opportunities available in manufacturing – an industry that employs 1 in 6 people in the state.

Sponsored by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and Johnson Financial Group, the contest highlights the state’s manufacturing industry, which employs 1 in 6 people in Wisconsin.

A popular vote will determine the Top 16 products. They will be placed in a bracket-style tournament called Manufacturing Madness.

Products will compete in one-on-one match-ups, and the products that receive the highest votes will advance to the next round.

Last year, nearly 150 products were nominated and over 125,000 votes were cast to determine the Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin.

Products have ranged from motorcycles, military vehicles, cheese products, boats, generators, food carts, iron castings, beer, all-terrain vehicles, snow blowers and more.

“Manufacturing is key in the state of Wisconsin, and amidst the global pandemic, many companies proved that the backbone of this country lies within the shop floors of local facilities. At the heart of the pandemic were first responders and Marion Body Works is honored to manufacture fire trucks and apparatus to protect those that help save lives,” said Taylor Gut, marketing and business development specialist at Marion Body Works.

The Top 16 products will be announced Sept. 22.

Voting will continue until Oct. 14 when the winner will be announced.

For more information, go to madeinwis.com/