By DAVID MURIMI

Staff Writer

The Boys and Girls Club of Ruston, located at 300 Memorial Dr., received a paper donation from International Paper Mill in Mansfield Dec. 2 for its Arts and Crafts program and float during the Christmas parade in Ruston.

Steven Harrelson, co-op intern at the mill, Boys and Girls Club member and a senior chemical engineering major, said five reels of 60-inch signature Brite Top paper were given to the Boys and Girls Club.

Harrelson said the Boys and Girls Club was looking for paper for the float and asked the mill, and they said they could help out.

"Enhancing the community and letting people know that they have a good neighbor is one of our goals," Doug Johnson, manager of operational services and a Tech alumnus, said.

Tim Key, manufacturing manager for all three paper machines at the mill, said the mill has experience with donation in the past and the donation to the Boys and Girls Club was not a problem.

"We donate to different church organizations and the Boys and Girls Club was no problem," Key said. "It is nice to help and be good citizens in the community."

Johnson said he has been to five different IP mills and, at each one he has been to, reaching out to the community has always been a big part.

"I think it's great that the mill can help the Boys and Girls Club when they are not even part of [the Ruston] community," Harrelson said.

"I was really pleased with Harrelson making the contact with the mill and now anytime we need paper we have some," Jimmy Williams, unit director of the Boys and Girls Club, said.

"I work summers at the mill full-time and I have a job when I graduate," Harrelson said. "And I am just proud to be working for a company that helps the community as much as they do."

"The parade was great, and the mill's donation to the club helped give the kids an opportunity to have fun and feel proud," Eldontae Osborne, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club, said.

Osborne also said it was a great example of what community is all about and helping each other especially during these holiday times.

Williams said the kids had a great time, which was the most important thing, and he knew the mill had the kids first in mind more than anything else.

Osborne and Williams said they are proud of all their staff's contributions and particularly that of Harrelson, who was the event coordinator of the Boys and Girls Club float.

"I am proud of my staff and was glad to see that the mill Harrelson works for respects him as much as we do and that they came to our [assistance] when we needed [it]," Osborne said.

Osborne said he felt, from a viewers' stand-point, that everything went well during the parade and, because of the help the Boys and Girls Club received, he said he hopes to keep in contact with the mill.