The Hankins family is known for stamping their name on every piece of lumber that leaves their facility. Soon, their name will also be stamped on Gate 15 of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium at the University of Mississippi, nearly 50 miles away from their mill in Ripley, Mississippi. The opportunity to name a gate honors the family’s recent $250,000 donation to the Ole Miss Athletic Department.

The Hankins’ close ties with Ole Miss are generational. All family members are avid fans of Rebel athletics, rarely missing a football, basketball or baseball game and always attending together. They bring the same commitment to their mill, which has manufactured, dried and planed Southern Yellow Pine lumber for over 30 years.

The mill is managed by three Hankins brothers, who grew up working in the lumber business alongside their father and uncle. Their operations support 100 onsite employees and over 700 indirect workers, a testament to their influence in the Ripley community.

A competitive lumber industry allows the Hankins to invest in their mills’ future by expanding, hiring and giving back to the community.

Fair trade of softwood lumber makes all of this possible and is necessary for the mill to contribute so faithfully to Ole Miss athletics. The key to this is the enforcement of anti-dumping and countervailing duties put on subsidized Canadian softwood lumber imports into the U.S. The duties support a level playing field and allow U.S. mills to invest in the future, like the one in Ripley, MS.

While the Hankins brothers are semi-retired, the business remains in the family, and they hope to continue building the legacy for a long time. To learn more about the communities behind the softwood lumber industry, check out additional resources here.

 
Original article:

Giving Ole Miss Athletics a Stamp of Approval