Centurion building not just boats, but community ties

For the first time, two old friends were able to experience coasting on Yosemite Lake with their families in a towboat they helped build.

Manuel Ayala and Jose Gonzalez Mora, coworkers at Centurion World Championship Towboats, have known each other for 18 years.

Merced is home to the Centurion manufacturing building on Grogan Avenue, where the towboats are built and shipped to dealers all around the world.

Centurion President Paul Singer said their towboats are used for all water sports, such as wake-boarding, wake-surfing and wake-skating.

Amy Mauzy, vice president of marketing and sales for Centurion, said the company wants to give back to the community and their employees, starting with Ayala and Gonzalez Mora.

“They’ve never been in a boat and they build them every day,” Mauzy said.

Ayala said the last time he was on a boat was when he was 13, the same age as his son, Jonathan, who came along for the ride with his two brothers.

“I’m loving it,” the elder Ayala said. “I’m happy that they came over here.”

Ayala said he occasionally brings his kids with him to work, and they are in awe of the boats, sitting in them and seeing what their dad builds every day.

“It feels good to ride in a boat that I made,” Manuel Ayala said.

Saturday morning was the first of many “Weekends of Giving” Centurion is going to have.

“We want to show the community they are involved. We’re a team and we like what we do,” said Shell Buchner, Centurion’s event coordinator.

Centurion employees and their families gathered at Lake Yosemite park to clean up litter and debris everywhere from the parking lot to the lake shore, the playground and picnic areas.

“We’re going to put a lot of work out here,” Singer said. “If this is where we do our work and play, we got to give back.”

Vincent Salazar, a Centurion employee and Merced resident, said he thinks doing weekend cleanups helps bring the company together.

“Our company is hopefully here to stay and we’re getting more involved in the community to help them in any we we can,” Salazar said.

Gonzalez Mora said there are no words to describe how grateful and blessed he felt to be able to go out on the lake with five of his seven children. When he woke up, he said, he thought he was taking his kids to clean up the lakefront, and instead he experienced something new with his family.

Ayala said the day showed the company’s commitment to its people and made him proud to be part of Centurion.

“I think the best part is the company is doing this for us, me and my kids,” Ayala said. “I never thought this would happen.”

Centurion leaders are planning to take more families out to the lake.

Said Singer: “I love the heart of the employees that were here. We want to be a part of this community.”

This story was originally published July 17, 2016 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Centurion building not just boats, but community ties."