MSSU students to help Carthage Crisis Center

A senior business class at Missouri Southern State University plans to help the Carthage Crisis Center with books for libraries in the facility that is being prepared for occupation next year and career skills seminars for people currently staying at the center.

Students in the class also plan to volunteer this weekend in the ongoing effort to prepare the former Leggett & Platt offices at Main Street and Central Avenue to house the Carthage Crisis Center.

Alex Kieslich, a senior business major and spokesman for the class, said the 15 or so students in the class decided that the Carthage Crisis Center was the best fit for the kind of work the students in the class wanted to do.

"Organizational behavior does a class project every year," Kieslich said. "Last year they sent fabric to Haiti. This year the class got together and decided we wanted to do something local and wanted to help people in this area. We got a list together of all the possible different facilities in this area and we went and spoke to everybody and we thought that we could help the Carthage Crisis Center the most. They seemed like they were interested in giving more help to their residents. Some of the places we saw were more into housing people and the feel we got at the Carthage Crisis Center was a little bit different."

The Crisis Center is working towards moving into new digs. Last year, Leggett & Platt donated a block-long building at the corner of Main Street and Central Avenue to the Crisis Center to replace the current home at 420 Lyon St.

Volunteers along with Center directors Brian and Marilyn Bisbee are working weekends and nights to prepare the new building for occupation.

Marilyn Bisbee said the Center hopes to move into the new building sometime early in 2009.

Kieslich said the students are working on two projects. The first project is to collect books, computers, tables and other items for the three libraries the Bisbees hope to set up in the new center.

Marilyn Bisbee said the center hopes to have a children's library, a library for men and a library for women.

"Currently the center has very few books for anyone to read and no computers for them to use," Kieslich said. "We are currently setting up a collection area for people to drop off used books, including children's and adult books. We would like to get enough to fill a small room. We are also searching for used computers where they can learn new skills and prepare themselves for new jobs in the workplace. Along with books and computers we are also trying to find shelving and desks to put in the library."

Kieslich said the students plan to hold career skills seminars, featuring Missouri Southern professors teaching basic interviewing and budgeting skills and the students leading skits to show residents good interview skills.

"They're going to be talking about job etiquette and such as that," Kieslich said. "I think they're going to be talking for about 30 minutes, and then we'll take over. First we've got a little skit, we'll demonstrate a good interview and a bad interview. We'll have somebody well dressed and cover a good interview, then we'll have someone who is not so well dressed and show what can happen in a bad interview.

"Then from there we're going to talk about goal setting and getting motivated about selling yourself in the marketplace. Then towards the end we'll do one-on-one mock interviews."

The first career seminar will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday and the second at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

In addition, the students in the class will volunteer their time Saturday morning to help with construction at the new Crisis Center.