Did you know the Catlettsburg refinery produces 2 percent of the gasoline in the United States? Nearly 3,000 eighth-graders from the Tri-State learned that and many other things about the operation at the 2013 Career Day.

Now in its seventh year the Catlettsburg Diversity Team organized the event where nearly 3,000 eighth-grade students from 25 schools learn about the refinery and what type of things the 790 employees do.

“A lot of people drive by and they just see this large refinery and big storage tanks and wonder what we do,” Nicci Triche, head of the diversity team, said. “The future of this operation depends on people in this area working here. We have people retiring all the time and we want to get students interested.”

Another reason for the event, Triche said, is to let students know that not all jobs at the refinery are math and science related.

“Not all of our jobs require a college degree,” she said. “A person doesn’t have to be an engineer, scientist or mathematician to work here. Even the jobs that don’t require a degree are very good jobs and pay good money.”

Eighth-graders from Rock Hill, Symmes Valley and St. Joseph High School attended this year’s event, and Triche says there is a reason to focus on eighth-graders.

“Eighth-graders are on the cusp of deciding what they want to with their lives,” she said. “If they come here maybe they will get an idea of what they want to do and take classes in high school that will prepare them for college or whatever job they want and come back here and work for us. Too many good, smart kids leave this area, get an education, get a job and never come back.”

Held in the Marathon classroom building gymnasium, 200 employees volunteer to work during the event. Departments with booths at the event included maintenance and mechanical, fire and rescue, terminal transport and marine, control lab and research and development, purchasing and warehouse, accounting, inspection, security, safety, environmental, technical services, product control, engineering and operations.

At each booth students were given a crash-course on what each department does and its importance to the operation of Catlettsburg Refining LLC.