A group of very active Job Corps students donated a $540.00 collection with a matching $540 DESI Corporation for the Japan Relief Efforts to the Bamberg Chapter of the American Red Cross last week.  “This is very significant,” said Red Cross chapter executive director Harvey Kling.  These young men and women represent the essence of community caring and giving.  I know that Bamberg Job Corps students have traditionally given their physical support and skills to the Bamberg Community over the years, but to collect this much money to help a community that is essentially only a temporary home to the majority of Job Corps students is remarkable.”

Typically Job Corps students stay at the Bamberg Job Corps Center for up to twelve or eighteen months while they complete their training and education, and then they’re off to new endeavors in their home town or a new community.  These young men and women are truly remarkable,” Kling commented.

What is equally important, the corporate offices of DESI, the current operator of the Bamberg Job Corps Center pledged to match the student’s donation.  “This total donation of $1,000 will go a long way in helping Bamberg families who’ve been put in harms way because of some disaster or another,” Kling explained.  The students began collecting the donations soon after the Japanese mainland was hit with the devastating earthquake and tsunami that left thousands homeless and thousands dead.

The Bamberg Chapter of the Red Cross has assisted hundreds of local families over the years from disastrous events such as burn-outs from home fires coordinated with Bamberg’s family assistance program the Cheese and Cracker Box, assistance to military families, first aid and CPR training and blood drives disasters nationally and internationally.