"... I also felt the responsibility to all my employees, to take care of them ..."

Aaron Feuerstein, the third-generation president and CEO of Malden Mills, producer of the revolutionary fabric, Polartec. When a fire ravaged much of his textile factory, Mr. Feuerstein became the symbol of a socially responsible business owner who rules by his conscience. Despite overwhelming pressure to resume operations overseas, Feuerstein instead pledged to rebuild the mill at home and pay his employees during the three-month reconstruction. Through it all, Feuerstein has been steadfast in his commitment to the local worker.

“I was proud of the family business and I wanted to keep that alive, and I wanted that to survive. But I also felt the responsibility for all my employees, to take care of them, to give them jobs.” -- Aaron Feuerstein

Since 1996, Mr. Feuerstein has received 11 Honorary Doctorate degrees. We too applaud Mr. Feuerstein for his devotion to his moral code that brought him to the now marveled at but then an unhesitantly quick decision to put his community first in the equation of what to do with his business. He is welcomed and loudly applauded again as a true American Made Hero!

The fire that broke out at Malden Mills in the winter of 1995 was the largest fire Massachusetts had seen for a century. No one was killed. But the town was devastated. Malden Mills was one of the few large employers in a town that was already in desperate straits. Mr. Feuerstein made a decision - one that others in the textile industry found hard to believe. Mr. Feuerstein decided to rebuild right there in Lawrence - not to move down South or overseas as much of the industry had done in search of cheap labor.