A steady increase in manufacturing facilities in the Greater Tahoe Area has given many DMC engineers the opportunity to spend some time in Reno, NV. When spending an extended period away from our home office, we like to bring more of our favorite traditions to our new remote location, so we’ve made a point to plan fun activity fund outings on weekends like wine tasting in Sonoma Valley, snowmobiling in Portola, CA, and skiing at Heavenly Mountain.
Activity fund outings are fun events everyone is encouraged to plan and invite other employees and their friends to and DMC helps cover the cost. Over Easter weekend, we took advantage of some exclusive Reno activities to celebrate the hard work of the engineering team in Reno during Q1 and send them out with a bang!
Last Hurrah at Harrah’s
We kicked off our weekend with goodbye dinner for DMC Boston's Eric Baggen at Harrah’s Steakhouse in Harrah's Casino and Hotel. Despite being a smidge underdressed in our jeans and steel-toed boots, we all indulged in the 4-course dinner with crab cake, salad, steak, and a baked Alaska dessert.
After a bar crawl around downtown, our night ended back at Harrah’s with craps, pool, and slots. We learned how to play the pass line and also that it’s very, very difficult to tell time in a casino.
Easter Eggstravaganza
Our fantastic project managers, Katherine Czaplicki and David Sestrich, also organized an Easter party for us. First, we got artsy dying some eggs!
Colorful eggs completed, we broke loose for a surprise-filled egg hunt around the house. Some of the surprises included chocolate bunnies and even a Lego kit – others weren’t so lucky and drew Smirnoff Ices (a DMC tradition). Icing requires you take a knee and down a Smirnoff as quickly as you can and usually comes as a complete surprise to the person who has been iced.
Eggshells to Bullet Shells
Hands down, the highlight of our weekend was going to Big Shot indoor shooting range. A small group of us arrived early enough to play a friendly April fool’s prank on DMC St. Louis' Chase Hollingsead by pretending it was his bachelor party.
Chase was congratulated on his upcoming nuptials and then required to wear a ball and chain attached to his ankle while instructors debriefed us on the types of guns we would have a chance to shoot and some general safety practices.
Most of us, including myself, knew very little about guns before the trip, so we were very grateful for our instructor’s descriptions of the firearms and explanations about how they would feel when we started shooting them. We grabbed safety gear, picked out some targets, armed-up, and headed into the range.
We worked our way up in intensity from an Uzi to a Full Auto Glock to an AR15. Everyone also got a (literal) kick out of the 0.50 caliber Desert Eagle.
Finally, we got to choose one of two belt-fed machine guns (an RPD or an M249 Saw), which quickly became the overall favorites.
Of all the activity fund events I’ve gotten to experience in Reno, this one was the best bang for our buck! Check out the video below for some highlights.
Find out what other fun things are going on at DMC.
Wish you were with us? Check out our Careers Page.