[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 11 (Thursday, January 19, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E140]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                HAPPY 25TH, OIC OF METROPOLITAN SAGINAW

                                 ______


                          HON. JAMES A. BARCIA

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 19, 1995

  Mr. BARCIA. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to the Opportunities 
Industrialization Center of Metropolitan Saginaw on its 25th 
anniversary. OIC of Metropolitan Saginaw has been of invaluable 
assistance to its more than 7,000 graduates and 32,000 other 
individuals who have obtained jobs over the past quarter century as a 
direct result of the outstanding devoted assistance provided by the 
most capable personnel of OIC who serve under the direction of their 
chairman, Martin H. Stark, and its executive director, Frederick Ford. 
OIC of Metropolitan Saginaw serves people in Saginaw, Bay, and Midland 
counties.
  Mr. Speaker, in these times of economic fluctuations, people see 
their careers changing several times. Sometimes the change is a matter 
of choice, taking advantage of a new opportunity. Other times the 
change is a matter of necessity because of what is happening with 
existing industries. In either case, programs like OIC of Metropolitan 
Saginaw are invaluable to the people in the community.
  Everyone is excited about the opening of a new OIC center in Saginaw 
later this year. It will provide additional space for many important 
programs, including Project Rescue, which helps out-of-school teenagers 
to improve their school work ethic so that they can return to our 
regular school system. It will also be a unique OIC facility having a 
chemistry lab that will be supported by an important business neighbor 
in the Saginaw metropolitan area, Dow Chemical.
  Opportunities Industrialization Centers are well known to our 
colleagues. They operate throughout the country and they have helped 
many get their high school diploma, or their graduate equivalency 
degree with its Comprehensive Competencies Program. OIC of Metropolitan 
Saginaw is a national leader in the success that it has with this 
program.
  Our colleagues will agree, Mr. Speaker, that a double problem we face 
today is having job skills that meet job opportunities, and a work 
ethic that meets the demands of a competitive work place and a 
competitive economy. As our industries have retooled and refocused 
their objectives, so to have many of our workers. Much of what we have 
accomplished in the past several years with reducing unemployment and 
making our workers more productive could not have been accomplished had 
it not been for community-based, citizen and business supported OIC`s. 
I personally congratulate the Opportunities industrialization Center of 
Metropolitan Saginaw for its many, many fine accomplishments since its 
inception in June 1969, and I look forward to doing what I can to join 
with the Saginaw metropolitan community in supporting this excellent 
entity and its committed leadership and staff for continued success in 
the years to come.

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