Cheese company raises money for sister city scholarships

Exchange scholarships will be given by the Rumiano Cheese Company to high school students from Del Norte High School in Crescent City, and Takata High School in Rikuzentakata, Japan.

“Some of the money has already been distributed to the Japanese Club at Del Norte High School,” said Baird Rumiano, president of the company, whose great-grandfather started the business in the early 1900s.

By the first weekend in December, Rumiano said he anticipates they will reach their $10,000 goal for the scholarship program, which started earlier this year and will benefit four students total.

“We sold 24 boxes of our Kamome Chef Box on Friday (Nov. 26),” Rumiano said.

Rumiano added between those boxes and sales throughout the year that use salt from Rikuzentakata, Japan on some of its cheese, the company had reached the halfway mark. The remaining 76 boxes, which retail for $95 a piece, are likely to sell out by Dec. 5.

Rumiano said they decided to implement the program in honor of the friendship the two cities developed after a Rikuzentakata boat washed ashore in Crescent City in April, 2013.

The boat was the property of Takata High School, but dislodged two years prior during a major earthquake in Japan - the effects of which caused a tsunami in Crescent City and caused significant damage to the harbor.

Del Norte High School students renovated the boat and returned it to the high school later that year, and the high schools have continued their relationship since.

“We are getting ready to make some more of the same cheese for next year, so we’ll be able to make this an annual Christmas gift,” Rumiano said.

Rumiano Cheese Company is headquartered out of Crescent City and has about 45 employees here, and also has a 46,766 square-foot plant in Willows, California, which has about 150 employees.