Representatives from Air Products & Chemicals, a global company headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania, that owns and operates the Doe Canyon Helium plant in Cahone, recently made a significant donation to Southwest Colorado Community College through the Pueblo Community College Foundation.
Site Manager Darrin McCarty and Elizabeth Ann O’Hare from Doe Canyon Helium presented checks totaling $3,500 to welding instructors Robert Reed and Cody Hager and student Leah Starr.
Welding students from SCCC visited the helium plant as part of a field trip this year and made a positive impression on McCarty.
“Our company’s foundation believes in giving back to the community and this community college is deserving,” McCarty said. “We appreciate the training that SCCC offers to the people of Southwestern Colorado.”
The Doe Canyon plant is the only one in the world extracting helium from a gas stream composed primarily of carbon dioxide. McCarty explained that helium is scarce today and the helium they extract and liquefy was already sold before the facility was built.
According to Air Products, helium is used in a variety of applications, such as the cooling of superconductive magnets used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Helium is also used in the manufacturing of semiconductors and fiber-optic cable, the aerospace industry, commercial diving and in the filling of weather balloons.
For more information about SCCC, visit www.EnrollSouthwest.org or call 970-247-2929 or 970-564-6200. For more information about Air Products & Chemicals, visit www.airproducts.com