KINDNESS AT WORK; KELLEY PRAISED FOR GIVING UNSKILLED WORKERS CHANCE

Michael Sterling says it's difficult for poor people -- especially poor African-Americans -- in Cape Girardeau to find good-paying jobs.

But Sterling, the president of the Cape Girardeau chapter of the NAACP, said one person has helped hundreds of unskilled workers gain skills and get good-paying jobs, and that's Fred Kelley.

"He helps people who most people turn away," Sterling said. "He gives a chance, a hand up, not a handout."

Kelley is president and business agent for the Craftsmen Independent Union. Working out of an office at 2709 Bloomfield Road, his union supplies some local contracters with skilled workers who don't belong to the AFL-CIO unions.

"We've got a training program that's free to people that wants to learn trades," Kelley said. The contractors that use C.I.U. labor finance it, Kelley said. For every hour a C.I.U. member works, the contractor pays some money to the training fund. The school teaches its students to be non-union carpenters, electricians, welders, ironworkers, finishers, sheet metal workers and millwrights.

"We really try to help out minorities and poor people," Kelley said. "So many of them need a chance. I want to give them a trade, train them in a trade and let them be productive in life."

"Just about everyone I've sent there has been hired," Sterling said. "In our community, that's very rare."

"Through his skill development, you are talking about enhancing the self esteem of families when the head of the family works," said Bernice Coar-Cobb, assistant professor of educational administration at Southeast Missouri State University.

Kelley said his union has between 400 and 600 workers in his data base. Times are slow and some are unemployed now, he said. However, Kelley expects them all to be working when construction on the addition to Procter & Gamble gets going.

Sterling said his generosity extends to other areas. Every Christmas, Kelley distributes food baskets to poor families in the Good Hope area. He sponsors a softball team at the Civic Center and gives generously to the NAACP.

Coar-Cobb said Kelley's compassion for the poor comes from his own background. Kelley grew up poor in the Smelterville area.

"If we had more people like Kelley who would give people a chance, the whole city would be a better place to live in," Sterling said. "His is not a random act of kindness, it's a constant act of kindness."

"I'm sincere in what I do, and try to do a good job," Kelley said.