Kosice, May 18, 2009 - Last weekend, May 15th and 16th 2009, saw the holding of the latest corporate volunteer event named U. S. Steel FOR KOSICE, during which the employees of the largest company in Eastern Slovakia helped eight Kosice organizations with their public-benefit activities.

The event started off on Friday morning with the "Steelmakers' Drop of Blood" call for blood-donors at the Hematology and Transfusion Department of Kosice - Saca Hospital, which is in the U. S. Steel Kosice Public Access Area. Throughout Friday and Saturday company employees brought in superfluous summer clothing, towels, bed linen and kitchen utensils, clean and in good condition, for various facilities run by the Archdiocesan Charity. "This collection has solved several problems at once for us," organizer Alica Starkova was heard to say. "At the Crisis Center for mothers with children we currently have three expectant mothers all ready to have their babies, and we really needed some sets of baby clothes and some prams - and now it's all sorted. Thanks to the steelmakers, who show that they think about other people in need as well as themselves, here at the Crisis Center we've also had our fence and gate painted, and the children's climbing-frames and benches in the grounds have been given a new coat too."

On Saturday morning the volunteers helped build a tent camp at Kosice Zoo, which will be available for children from the whole region throughout the summer. "On Volunteer Days there are whole families who come to our Zoo again and again. They ask to come here specially, because they want to help a good cause. Splendid! We really appreciate their enthusiasm, and together we can enjoy the results of some well done work," was how project leader Stefan Kollar summed up the activity.

The steelmakers' enthusiasm also left Dr. Peter Pavlov short for words of praise. The Director of St.Luke's Highly-specialized Geriatric Institute in Kosice also rolled up his sleeves and joined in the event together with other colleagues and the nuns. "We've done a tremendous bit of work cleaning up and tidying the greenery all around the grounds here, " he said. "In just one morning, fifty people managed to do as much as would take us several months to do on our own."

Frigo Children's Organization Deputy Director Robert Schwarcz sees the main benefit of this event in the fact that through this joint activity the employees of an industrial company get to know more about this not-for-profit organization, as well as contributing to the creation of a new club-room offering organized leisure-time activites for the "latch-key kids" in one of the Kosice neighborhoods.

Dozens of other volunteers helped smarten up the premises of the Ludova Street nursery school for disabled children, or tidy up the area of the Haniska dog sanctuary. Bicycle lovers will surely be pleased with the cleaned up Hornad - Torysa - Hornad cycling trail close to the Kosice city ward Krasna. Some came to help as individuals, but whole work teams joined in as well. Just as in the preceding two years, various professions were represented this time too: apart from workers and managers from individual divisions and plants, there were also plentiful numbers of lawyers, ecologists, and procurement, finance and IT specialists. They came along with their colleagues or with members of their family, some of them with teenage children who could learn naturally in this way to be more sensitive to other people's needs. At the end of this corporate volunteer event, U. S. Steel Kosice President George F. Babcoke, who had also helped in several places together with his wife Kathleen, commented: "In the USA and in Slovakia there are many people who care about others and who do not hesitate to help out. I am proud that steelmakers are among them."

- E N D -

Further information:

Jan Baca
spokesman
U. S. Steel Kosice, s.r.o.
Tel.: +421 55 673 4476
Fax: +421 55 673 0330