Next week, 22 teams of middle schoolers will be competing for top honors in a virtual statewide What’s So Cool About Manufacturing virtual event, the “Best of PA” Statewide Awards.

The COVID-19 pandemic has birthed a new manufacturing business with a Montgomeryville company spinning off a new company to continue the work making Personal Protective Equipment that it started during the shutdown.

Eight projects in the Lehigh Valley were among 43 in the state to receive grants in through Gov. Tom Wolf’s $2.8 million Manufacturing PA Initiative.

Beverage and ice cream manufacturer Turkey Hill acquired a Searcy, Arkansas-based ice cream production facility as it looks to expand into more markets across the country.

Gov. Tom Wolf will need to expand liability protections to manufacturers, small businesses and more health care providers or risk Pennsylvania businesses refusing to open for fear of frivolous COVID-19 related lawsuits, said a coalition of state associations.

The newest tenant at Allentown’s Bridgeworks Enterprise Center is the Lehigh Valley’s first kosher winery. It’s also the only kosher winery in Pennsylvania and one of only a few in the Northeast.

From the rye whiskey maker who switched to hand sanitizer, to the leather baby shoe maker that pivoted to cotton face mask, some Lehigh Valley manufacturers deemed non-essential by Gov. Tom Wolf in March, converted production lines to keep workers employed, and discovered innovative product solutions. 

Bethlehem’s OraSure Technologies, which makes diagnostic tests such as the OraQuick rapid HIV test, said it plans to buy a Boston-based company that works in the HIV field.

Air Products of Trexlertown has named Samir J. Serhan, executive vice president, as COO of the company.

Seifi Ghasemi will remain president, chairman and CEO of Air Products in Trexlertown for at least the next five years. The company’s board of directors has extended his contract through Sept. 30, 2025.