VGCC Criminal Justice Students send needed items to troops in Afghanistan

Criminal Justice Technology students at Vance-Granville Community College recently completed a service project intended to support members of the United States armed forces serving overseas. The students’ Criminal Justice Club collected nonperishable food and personal items that are among those most requested by the troops, from disinfectant wipes to foot spray. Donations came from VGCC students, faculty and staff, and the young students at the Day Care Center on the college’s main campus. By the end of the effort in late October, students had packed ten boxes full of more than 500 pounds of supplies and sent them to U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Harold Hargrove, Jr. in Afghanistan, to distribute the items. Hargrove is the brother of VGCC Criminal Justice instructor Steven Hargrove.

This was the first time that the club has done such a project for military personnel, but the club also continued two of its longstanding traditional service projects this fall as well. One involved picking up trash along the whole length of the club’s adopted street, Poplar Creek Road, near the college’s main campus on Interstate 85 in Vance County. In the other project, club members collected and packed 400 bags full of candy as a Halloween treat for children at the Masonic Home for Children in Oxford, Central Children’s Home in Oxford, and the day care centers at both VGCC’s Main Campus and Franklin County Campus.

For more information on the VGCC Criminal Justice program , call program head Andrea Ferguson at (252) 738-3441.

Above: From left, VGCC Criminal Justice students Jamill Belton, Sean Kassinger, Rashod Moss and Randy Parrott, all of Oxford, pack boxes full of supplies to be sent to U.S. servicemen and women in Afghanistan. Belton is the vice president of the Criminal Justice Club and, as a veteran of the U.S. Navy, he felt a special connection to the recipients of the packages. (VGCC photo)