USSK volunteers united by a beautiful idea

On Saturday, June 9th, dozens of steelmakers were united by a beautiful idea. On that day there was a gathering of people from various professions, workers and managers, some young and others born earlier, who came to prove that with combined strengths it is possible to achieve a great deal. Many of them did not know each other that morning, but by the afternoon they looked practically like old friends. The U. S. Steel Kosice Volunteer Days have had their debut - and it turned out well.
Throughout Saturday morning help was at hand in improving, tidying and enhancing the grounds of the A. Fischer Colbrie Seniors' Rest Home on South Drive in Kosice, the Children's Fun-Sports Area on Alejova Street, and Kosice Zoo up at Kavecany, from a total number of 79 volunteers from the ranks of U. S. Steel Kosice employees. But the Volunteer Days really began the day before, on Friday, at the blood transfusion clinic. The Steelmakers' Drop of Blood campaign was supported by 81 employees - but there are many more unpaid blood donors working for the Company. Since the beginning of the year they have given blood more than 1900 times. The Volunteer Days also appealed to our American colleagues and their family members, who came in plentiful numbers to join in all the events organized within this unusual project.

Your chance to play!

Also on Saturday, June 9th, at the Street Basket event in the Steel Arena, USSK President David H. Lohr announced the continuation of the project called Your chance to play! In contrast to last year, though, the chance to take advantage of U. S. Steel Kosice support was offered not only to young, talented ice-hockey and basketball players but to soccer talents (boys and girls) as well. Like this, U. S. Steel Kosice gives chances to all talents, regardless of their social background. Experience from carrying out the project during its first annual edition shows that the decision to help young talented people was right, when they're from families who would find the cost of financing their children's sporting activities beyond their means. Many children sponsored by USSK have achieved serious successes in many sporting tournaments, and they have the chance to improve constantly and develop. And the chance to show they can do a lot of that in sport as well. As David Lohr said when announcing this project on Saturday, U. S. Steel, as a socially responsible company sharing in various ways in the development of the city and the region, is also considering supporting young sportspeople in other kinds of sports as well.

Slovak Gold Grand Prix for KORAD

The Presidium of the Slovak Gold Foundation has awarded the Slovak Gold Grand Prix for 2006 to the KORAD range of panel radiators, produced by U. S. Steel Kosice. The prize was officially presented in Bratislava on Thursday, June 7, to USSK GM Secondary Products Tibor Kovacs and GM Technical Product Sales Julius Lang by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Slovak Gold Foundation Jozef Sitko. Kosice steelmakers have been producing KORAD radiators for 38 years now.

Steelers Cup serves up an exhibition

This week is going to be a busy one on the clay courts of the Anicka Tennis Center in Kosice. That is where the 5th edition of the Steelers Cup annual tennis challenger tournament is taking place, with 25 000 US dollars in sponsorship. The event's general sponsor is U. S. Steel Kosice. Monday, June 11th, saw the main Steelers Cup competition start with the first round games, which were completed yesterday. Today's program consists of the second round matches, and tomorrow belongs to the quarter-finals. The semi-final games are on Friday, and the final match is scheduled for Saturday, June 16th, at 2 pm, to be followed by the doubles final.
The event organizers prepared a most original grand opening ceremony for this year's Steelers Cup in Kosice. It began with an exhibition game between two of Slovakia's best tennis players in recent years - Karol Kucera, who has retired from active competition in the meantime, and our current Davis Cup representative Dominik Hrbaty. What is more, there was an auction during the first set of the match. The organizers came up with the initiative in the preceding week of announcing an auction via internet - for two places in a doubles game with both of our tennis stars. The auction also continued on Sunday among the spectators of the exhibition encounter. There was another auction for the racket of the current fourth-placed player in the world ATP ranking, the Serbian Novak Djokovic. The proceeds from these charity auctions, and from the voluntary admission payments by the public throughout this week of the challenger tournament at Anicka, will be going towards the purchase of a dialysis machine for children with acute and chronic kidney failure at the Children's Hospital in Kosice.

"Knock-up" with Mecir

The excursion which Susan Lohr organized on Sunday, June 10th, for forty children from the foster homes in Podolinec and Hostovice had just begun with a stroll up Main Street and a sit-down beside the Singing Fountain, and the boys and girls had a whole day's interesting program ahead of them. And it must be said that they got great pleasure from it. After visiting the museum and enjoying a good lunch, they set off together with their host for the Anicka Tennis Center, to see the start of the 5th edition of the annual ATP Challenger Series Steelers Cup tennis tournament. They had a unique opportunity not only to watch the exhibition match between Karol Kucera and Dominik Hrbaty, but also to have a "knock-up" with a genuine tennis racket together with tournament director and winner of the 1988 Seoul Olympics Milos Mecir. The children from both foster homes were presented with checks each worth 15 000 Slovak crowns by Branislav Stankovic on behalf of the Steelers Cup organizers.