Job Corps celebrates 50 years

MOSES LAKE - David Gillett said it wasn't easy, but he got help and he made it. The place he turned to for help was the Columbia Basin Job Corps.

The legislation creating the Job Corps program was signed 50 years ago this week, and the Moses Lake campus celebrated the anniversary Wednesday. Gillett and fellow graduates of the Moses Lake program were among the speakers.

"I was actually homeless," Gillett said, staying in a shelter in Salem, Ore. Then David talked to a Job Corps recruiter.

Jesse Till said he also was not having much luck finding a place to live, or a job. Then a friend needed a ride to the Job Corps office, and Jesse went along to listen, he said. He heard enough to make him ask his own questions, and eventually apply for admission.

"This program is great," Till said.

"I can't explain how much this center has helped me," Gillett said. "How much this program has helped me." Gillett took computer training at the same time he was working on a degree at Big Bend Community College. Currently he's employed with the Moses Lake School District, recently received his bachelor's degree and wants to work on a masters, he said. Till said he's headed back to school.

"Job Corps is just - awesome," said Anthony Quinn, another alum. He learned what he needed to know to pursue a career as a welder, he said.

But it took a couple of tries, he said. The first time through he didn't work that hard, he said, so upon graduation in one course he applied for the welding program. The second time around he put in the work, he said, and it paid off. "Job Corps has helped me so much," he said.

"You guys who just come here to get away from your town - don't waste it," Quinn said.

Christina Brown said she and her husband Steven probably would be working what she called "dead end jobs" if they hadn't been accepted into Job Corps. They were working those kind of jobs before they got to Job Corps, she said, when they were working at all.

Christina said she had no ambition and direction before being accepted to Job Corps. Through it she found direction, found the ambition, a career that she likes and her husband, she said.

Steven Brown's mom Starla Novy was a Job Corps graduate too. She said the Job Corps training she got helped her start her own business, and she too met her husband at Job Corps.

The Job Corps program is challenging, Gillett said. "It wasn't the easiest thing. It was hard." But it paid off in the end. "It is this program that has helped me do everything I've done in my life," Gillett said.

There are Job Corps students who are only thinking about what they're getting away from, Quinn said, not what they're working for. "Take advantage of all they offer here," he said. Students will not have the chance to do this again, so they should enjoy it, he said.

The program included a proclamation from Moses Lake Deputy Mayor Karen Librecht and Grant County Commissioners Carolann Swartz and Cindy Carter.

State Rep. Judy Warnick was the keynote speaker, saying "it (Job Corps) is personal for me." Her son-in-law is a Job Corps graduate, she said, and might not have achieved what he has achieved without the training and support he received at Job Corps.

Warnick used to be on the Grant County Fair board, she said, and when the board was working on improvement projects, they had a reliable partner. "We would just call the Job Corps and they would get it done," she said.

Mike Kelly, the center's director, detailed some of the history of Job Corps, and Dennis Clay, the president of the Job Corps Community Relations Council, read letters of congratulation from President Barack Obama and Senator Maria Cantwell.