VGCC and Yancey Elementary Students Send Letters to Soldiers

Students at Vance-Granville Community College recently helped third-graders at Lelia B. Yancey Elementary School with a mission to bring smiles to the faces of American troops overseas.Gertrude Marrow, a VGCC student and Henderson resident, has been working at Yancey Elementary through the Co-Op program. Marrow has worked in the local schools in the past and decided to enroll at Vance-Granville to pursue a Teacher Associate degree. Co-Op, or Cooperative education, combines classroom studies with on-the-job, career-related work experience. Co-Op students like Marrow get relevant, resume-building work experience while earning course credit toward a degree. For her Co-Op experience, she was assigned to third-grade teacher Jennifer Gracias, which she said she has enjoyed greatly. She hopes to finish her degree in fall 2007.Marrow and her fellow members of the VGCC Literary Arts Club wanted to involve the local public schools in a project, and their idea to send letters to U.S. servicemen and women gained the support of Yancey Elementary’s faculty and Principal Phillip Rountree. Marrow said she didn’t know how to go about it until she talked with Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Larry Bobbitt, a Vance County Schools speech language pathologist. He directed her to send them to Master Sgt. Roxanne Matthews of the U.S. Air Force, who is serving at the base where Bobbitt was stationed: Logistics Support Area (LSA) Anaconda in Balad, Iraq. The letters, written by students in Gracias’ class, were mailed on Dec. 8.Bobbitt spent a year (2005-2006) in Iraq. “I spent last Christmas in Iraq, so I’m very glad to be here at home this Christmas,” he said. He showed pictures from his experiences to all three third-grade classes at Yancey Elementary on Dec. 12, so that they would have a better understanding of where their letters were headed. Many of the students said they were reading newspapers or watching television to learn more about events in Iraq, and by a show of hands, a majority said they had relatives who were currently serving in the armed forces. Bobbitt said that, fortunately, his entire unit returned from Iraq, with only one injury among them.Larry Burwell of Henderson, a VGCC Criminal Justice student and vice president of the club, concluded the literary event by reading a Christmas story to the third-graders. In addition to Burwell and Marrow, club members Samelia Williams and Latoya Burrell, both VGCC Business Administration students from Henderson, were also on hand.This was the first community service project for Vance-Granville’s new Literary Arts club. The club has been established for the purpose of stimulating interest in, and providing a social forum for, literary arts throughout the college community. Any full-time or part-time student or former student is eligible for membership. Associate membership is also open to any full-time or part-time VGCC faculty or staff members.Marian Dillahunt, a VGCC instructor and advisor for the Literary Arts club, said that “the club’s service-learning (curriculum-based community service) objectives are designed to integrate classroom instruction and/or activities with community service activities.” Dillahunt said that projects such as ‘Writing to our Troops’ are “powerful tools in many areas of the students’ lives, including academic achievement. Service learning engages students in civic and community life, promoting their healthy development and positively impacting their education.”Pictured above: Students in Jennifer Gracias’ (left) third-grade class at L. B. Yancey Elementary School, with, from left on back row, Vance-Granville Community College students Samelia Williams, Larry Burwell, Gertrude Marrow and Latoya Burrell. (VGCC Photo)