VGCC Criminal Justice Students collect supplies for kids in need

Students and instructors of the Criminal Justice program at Vance-Granville Community College recently completed a service project to collect supplies for local children in foster care. VGCC students coordinated the project with the Vance County and Warren County Departments of Social Services. Donations will benefit children in the foster care system in those counties by seeking to meet their immediate needs. The project is an example of “service-learning,” an innovative teaching and learning strategy that integrates community service with academic instruction. Among the items donated by college students, faculty, staff and members of the community were school supplies such as book bags, paper and pencils; comfort items such as teddy bears; and hygiene products like toothpaste, toothbrushes and shampoo. In addition, $110 in cash was donated, which will be used to buy gift cards that will be distributed to the social services agencies. The agencies will be able to use the gift cards to buy needed items for children, once the donated supplies are exhausted.

Those involved in the project included, front row from left, Etasha Cheek, Rashunda Henderson, Tiffany Branch, Amanda Carroll, Keysha Towler, Jay Boyer, and Derrick Knight; back row from left, VGCC Administrative Assistant for Business & Applied Technologies Betty Jo Ellis, Tommy Overcash, Winfred Crawford, Brandon Ray, Criminal Justice instructor Andrea Ferguson, Raymond Dunn, William Yarbrough and Charlotte Hedgepeth.