Kosice, December 10th 2007 - The steelmaking company's charitable activities culminated in the Wishing Tree Christmas Concert, which took place on Friday, December 7th 2007 in the Kosice State Theater.
It has become a tradition that U. S. Steel Kosice and its employees regularly train their attention on charitable activities in the pre-Christmas period. In this way they try to make the year's most beautiful festivities even more pleasant for those to whom fate has not always been favorably inclined. This year once again the steelmakers have extended a helping hand to the children in four foster homes and oncology patients in Eastern Slovakia.
Children are now eagerly awaiting their dreamed-of Christmas gifts in foster homes in Presov, Medzilaborce, Spisska Bela and Spisske Vlachy. They wrote their secret wishes on little cards, anticipating the generosity in the steelmakers' hearts when they picked individual wishes hanging on special Christmas trees placed around the steelworks, and turned those wishes into reality. So at this very moment there are almost 700 gifts prepared for 257 children, who will find them later under the Christmas tree. But the steelmakers' help does not end with toys and sports gear. All four foster homes involved in the U. S. Steel Kosice Wishing Tree project were presented with symbolic checks during the Christmas Concert worth 250 000 SKK each, which means that the total amount of funds intended for the foster homes comes to one million crowns.
Help from the steelmakers at the end of the year is also heading for health-care. The fund-raising appeal announced at the end of October for the East Slovakian Oncology Institute in Kosice was supported by 13 164 employees, who collected 1 552 886 Slovak crowns altogether. This sum was then matched with the same amount from both the Company and the U. S. Steel Kosice Foundation, making a final total going towards the purchase of anesthesiology equipment amounting to 4 658 658 crowns. The employees have contributed towards oncology from their salaries several times now, and various oncological projects are also regularly supported by the Company. A symbolic check was presented to the Director of the East Slovakian Oncology Institute, Mr. Alexander Berc, by U. S. Steel Kosice President David H. Lohr during the Concert.
The Company management also decided to support Kosice State Theater to the same degree as last year, donating one million Slovak crowns in sponsorship for theater projects in 2008. The gala program of the Wishing Tree Christmas Concert featured performances by Martin Babjak, Janek Ledecky, Australian opera singer Louise Hudson, Hungarian violin virtuoso Edvin Marton and the Bratislava Boys Choir.

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Further information:

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