Rehoboth Area Helping Foreign Workers

Some people come to the beach every summer for more than a vacation.

There are dozens of places along the boardwalk and many of them rely on foreign workers. Rehoboth Beach sees close to 2,000 of them each year. They come to work, earn some cash and learn about America.

The Rehoboth-Dewey Chamber of Commerce hosted an event Tuesday that aimed to assist foreign workers with finding jobs, places to live and offering them general safety information.

The program, which offers free meals and information, is offered several times throughout the season. This is the second year of the International Student Outreach Program. The program was started after foreign workers were involved in accidents and trouble, stemming from not having a knowledge if the area and way of life. Without this outreach, the program's chairman said many of these workers would be lost.

"They'd be relying on their own wits and their sponsoring agencies to help them with finding jobs and finding places to live," said Hugh Leahy, chairman of the International Student Outreach Program. "We found that most kids did pretty well but many fell through the cracks and were struggling to know which way the beach was."

The program's administrators say the efforts cost between $50-60,000 and is raised solely through donations from businesses, churches and the public.

Those who come from afar to work in the area say the benefits are great.

"I can speak English and I can understand other people and it's interesting for me to spend my summer holiday in the United States," said Peter Bomderemko, a Russian student worker.

The efforts pay off because, according to event organizers, the major reason workers come here is not for money, but to learn English. Without them, officials say, many of these boardwalk businesses could not run. Effectively, they would be out some 2,000 workers.