From May 20-23, 2005, Consul General Kenneth Fairfax and his wife joined a group of more than 50 senior executives from the American firm UPS for community service projects in eastern Podkarpackie and western Ukraine during which they built a new computer laboratory for the school in Lipa, Podkarpackie.
U.S. Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe joined the group for the dedication of the computer laboratory in Lipa on Sunday evening, May 22. The project was organized and financed by the American firm UPS and included participation by many of the firm's top executives, including Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mike Eskew along his wife Molly. Mike Eskew and the other UPS executives traded in their desks for hammers and paint brushes and worked from dawn till dusk to build the new school building in a single weekend. UPS is the world's largest package express firm with nearly 400,000 employees working in countries around the globe.
In addition to building the new school building, UPS supplied the schools of Lipa and Sierakośce with computer laboratories featuring 25 top of the line computers and dedicated high-speed satellite Internet access. To help the schools make the most of the new equipment, UPS is also financing the hiring of computer and English teachers for the two schools. In Sierakośce, UPS helped finance the completion of a school building to house the new computer equipment. In Lipa, UPS also helped finance the construction of a large new athletic building that is nearing completion.
As UPS Chief Executive Mike Eskew told the people of Sierakośce and Lipa during dedication ceremonies, the events of May 20-23 were just the beginning of UPS's long-term commitment to their towns. UPS will continue to support and finance the computer laboratories and teachers for years to come. In addition, each year UPS will offer full college scholarships to the top ten students from each school. Later this year, UPS is organizing a field trip by students to Washington, DC.
On Monday, May 23, Ambassador Ashe, Consul General Fairfax and the UPS executives crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border between Sierakośce, Poland and Niżankowice, Ukraine, to dedicate a new joint cooperation agreement between the schools in the two towns. UPS is helping to support cooperation between the schools and is supplying the school in Niżankowice with direct high-speed satellite Internet access.
|
