With the number of plant closures and steel worker layoffs mounting, Clear Channel Radio and its stations are teaming up with Ashland, Kentucky business, Fannin Motors, for a food drive to help laid off steelworkers in the area.
The food drive started Thursday and continues through Tuesday, Nov. 25. All the food will be delivered to the United Steelworkers of America Local 1865 on Wednesday.
"The historic lay offs at AK Steel have touched and effected the entire Tri-State," said Judy Cornett, Vice-President/Market Manager at Clear Channel in Huntington, West Virginia. "My father worked at Armco (now AK Steel) and I know that this Thanksgiving and Christmas season will be hard on these employees. We ask that everyone who is able to support the food drive to please take the time to do so."
Anyone interested in donating is asked to take non-perishable food items or monetary donations to Fannin Motors, 7405 U.S. Route 60, Ashland, Kentucky.
Steel Recycling Institute helps Habitat for Humanity recycle cars for homes
To celebrate America Recycles Day, which took earlier this month, the Steel Recycling Institute (SRI) teamed up with Habitat for Humanity's Cars for HomesTM program. The SRI's role in the program is to generate awareness about recycling steel from automobiles to build affordable housing.
"By donating an old car, truck, boat or RV to Habitat's Cars for HomesTM program, individuals help save energy and natural resources and provide funds to build affordable homes with families from within the local community," Marcia Rundle, director of Cars for HomesTM, Habitat's national vehicle donation program.
The SRI says that the steel from cars that are recycled every year is equivalent to the amount it would take to build nearly 45,000 steel-framed homes and would save the equivalent energy to power about 18 million households.
As part of their support for the program, the SRI has incorporated the car donation program into its Steel Recycling Locator database. The Steel Recycling Locator charts more than 30,000 national steel recycling options, now including local options for donating out-of-service automobiles.
"By donating their out-of-service automobiles to Cars for HomesTM, consumers will support their local Habitat for Humanity affiliate," said Bill Heenan, president of the SRI. "And, Cars for HomesTM will, in turn, make sure the cars are recycled, which conserves energy and natural resources while providing valuable feedstock for making new steel."
Steel water bottles gaining popularity as healthy, green alternative to plastic
If you are like most Americans, you probably consume a lot of bottled water. But with the increasing push to "go green" as well as growing safety concerns about the chemicals in plastic, re-usable stainless steel water bottles are growing in popularity.
"Last year at this time we couldn't pay anyone to take our stainless steel bottles," said Sloan Russell, the president of Guyot Designs in Deer Isle, Maine. Now bottle sales at Guyot, an eco-friendly provider of outdoor lifestyle products, are expected to be $3 million this year, up from $60,000 in 2007.
Another distributor of stainless steel water bottles, Water Geeks Labratories Inc., recently unveiled its new line of stainless steel bottles available for the holiday season. The company says that customer demand for stainless steel water bottles is high because they are eco-friendly and BPA (aka. bisphenol-A, a potentially harmful chemical that can be found in hard plastic bottles)-free.
In addition to their in-demand product, what makes Canada-based Water Geeks special is that as of November 17, it will donate a percentage of the online retail price of their stainless steel water bottles to UNICEF as part of the non-profit organization's clean water campaign, known as the TAP PROJECT. The project is aimed at conservation and addressing the global water crisis.
Early Christmas shoppers can check out the stainless steel bottles available at the Guyot and Water Geeks websites.
82-year old steelworker has no plans to retire
An steelworker who has gained "celebrity status," over the years according to AK Steel spokesperson Alan McCoy, is facing some tough times. Bonnie Rooks, at 82, is the oldest active employee among AK Steel's seven plants, along with many other steel employees, is seeing the effects of the downturn in the industry first-hand.
Rooks, who has worked at AK's Mansfield plant since 1983, found out earlier this month that she's one of several hundred employees at the plant subject to a temporary layoff during the Christmas season.
"We just don't know what's going to happen," Rooks told local newspaper The Columbus Dispatch. "I'm hoping that the bottom doesn't fall out." The current economic slump isn't anything she hasn't seen before though, since she grew up during the Great Depression.
While many people of her age have been retired for years, even with the current uncertainty about the steel market, Rooks says she has no plans to retire. "I don't even think about it," she told press.
Rooks' wide-ranging career at AK Steel, which began at age 56, has included laying bricks used to reline the mill's furnaces, laying rail ties, and today encompasses janitorial work and extinguishing grease fires in the hot-strip mill.
Rooks, who has been profiled several times over the years by national and local newspapers, says she plans to use her time off work to pen her autobiography, tentatively titled: I'm Steel Here.