Carver Elementary Celebrates Opening of Multipurpose Room
A ribbon cutting was held on Friday, September 30th for Carver Elementary School as they celebrated their new multipurpose room was officially dedicated in memory of Eddie Wright, the late Vance County Board of Commissioners’ member who proved to be the school’s biggest advocate in getting the facility constructed.
All of the 225 students in the school were joined by the entire school staff, parents, friends and local officials in dedicating the new multipurpose room and participating in a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Marion Perry, a valuable and outstanding supporter of Carver Elementary, presented the plaque, which will hang in the new facility, commemorating the amazing contributions of Wright. She presented the plaque to Wright’s widow, Maresa, and their two daughters, Sabrina and Ashley.
In making the presentation, Perry talked about Wright’s devotion to Carver Elementary School and all public schools in Vance County. She said they often shared conversations about the importance of education and their mutual passion for helping children.
Principal David Westbrook told the audience that the handsome, wooden plaque, with a color photo of Wright, will be placed at the front entrance of the new multipurpose room.
Several local dignitaries were on hand to offer comments of praise for Wright and his steadfast support of the school and local children. Those who spoke included: Gloria J. White, chairwoman of the Vance County Board of Education: Gordon Wilder, chairman of the Vance County Board of Commissioners; Henderson Mayor Eddie Ellington; John Barnes, president of the Henderson-Vance County Chamber of Commerce; and Dr. Anthony Jackson, superintendent of Vance County Schools.
Students and teachers from the school assisted with the ribbon-cutting, which was led by White. Mrs. Wright and her daughters also participated as did all of the local officials in attendance.
“This is a great day for our school,” Westbrook said. “We are so proud to have this wonderful facility for our students. We will always remember Mr. Wright for his amazing support in making this new facility possible.”
VGCC presents free seminar to help businesses prepare for holidays
The Vance-Granville Community College Small Business Center, in partnership with the Henderson-Vance Downtown Development Commission, is inviting local businesses to plan ahead for success in the upcoming holiday season.
A free workshop, entitled “Maximizing Sales During the Holidays,” will be held at the Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce (414 S. Garnett Street, Henderson) on Wednesday, Oct. 26, from 8-10 a.m.
Mike McConchie of Creedmoor will serve as the instructor. The owner of M&M Consultants, Inc., McConchie is a Certified Business Coach and a Senior Business Consultant. He has over 36 years of retail management experience and is the past president of the Granville County Chamber of Commerce.
Topics for the workshop will include: the importance of different time periods, including November as a whole, Thanksgiving weekend in particular, and the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day; merchandising; pricing; staffing; marketing; how to capture customer information for use throughout the year and its relation to target marketing; decorating a store front; why holiday selling is different than the rest of the year; why gift cards are so important; and overcoming sold-out situations.
Breakfast will be provided at no charge to attendees who register in advance by Oct. 20.
Registration can be completed online at www.vgcc.edu/schedules/small-business-center.
For more information, contact Tanya Weary, director of the Small Business Center, at (252) 738-3240 or smallbusiness@vgcc.edu.
Biodiesel 4 Schools donates to Vance County Schools
The Biodiesel 4 Schools Program has donated $460 to Vance County Schools since June.
The school system entered a partnership with the program in January of 2015.
Dean Price of Green Circle N.C., administers the program that partners with public school systems across this region of North Carolina to turn used cooking oil from local businesses into biodiesel fuel used in certain motor vehicles. The program then provides the school system with a percentage of the funds collected each quarter when the fuel is sold to customers.
Price made the first donation in early June and the second donation in mid-September. He has also reported that the program is now using the old N.C. Biofuels Center in Oxford to produce the biodiesel from the used cooking oil.
Green Circle on a regular basis collects used cooking oil from 16 local restaurants and other businesses that donate their oil for the Biodiesel 4 Schools Program.
“These businesses are showing their support for local schools and we expect to get others involved in the program,” Price said.
Local businesses currently participating in the program include: Denny’s; Skipper Forsythe’s Bar-B-Q; George’s; Golden Corral; Ichibar Japanese; J.J. Fish and Chicken; Ma’s Country Kitchen; Pegram’s Dairy Bar; Randy’s Kitchen/Amerigas; Village Kitchen; Maria Parham Medical Center; Henderson Moose Lodge; New Hope Mini Mart; Drewry Fire Department; and Vance-Granville Community College.
Vance County High School Students Attend Local College Fair
Students from the four local high schools attended the annual College Fair held at Vance-Granville Community College on September 21.
The two-hour event was held in the morning in the community college’s Civic Center. There were representatives from approximately 60 colleges and universities in attendance to share information about future educational opportunities with students from Northern Vance, Southern Vance, Western Vance and the Vance County Early College high schools.
The community college partners each year with school systems in the four-county area it serves to provide information to high school students. Vance-Granville officials did another great job in hosting the event and getting a large number of colleges to participate.
Among the colleges with representatives on hand were Appalachian State, Barton, Campbell, Chowan, East Carolina, Elizabeth City State, Johnson & Wales, Liberty, Meredith, N.C. Central, N.C. State, Sweet Briar, UNC Pembroke, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, UNC Wilmington, UNC Greensboro, Shaw, Western Carolina, William Peace and Winston-Salem State.
Good News: VGCC awarded grant for revamped Male Mentoring initiative
Vance-Granville Community College recently received a $17,234 grant from the North Carolina Community College System to fund the Male Mentoring Success Initiative at the college for the 2016-2017 academic year.
All first-year male students at the college will now be involved in the expanded program, according to Anthony Pope, a VGCC academic & career coach who coordinates the initiative.
Representatives of VGCC and other colleges that received the grants attended a system-wide kick-off event on Aug. 30 at Wake Technical Community College. Then, in early September, VGCC held a series of study skills workshops at all four college campuses, entitled “How to Maximize Your Study Time,” as the Male Mentoring Success Initiative’s first events of the new academic year. The VGCC Academic Skills Center collaborated with the MMSI on those workshops. Pope added that collaboration with departments throughout the college is key to the success of the initiative.
Various VGCC faculty and staff members serve as “coaches” in the program. New for this year, Pope is recruiting student “mentees” who have already completed one year at VGCC to serve as “peer mentors” to students at one of the college’s four partnering Early College high schools.
For several years, under different names, the MMSI has worked to help male students stay in school and on track to graduate or transfer to a four-year university. Pope said that events planned for this year include tours of North Carolina universities, guest speakers and educational workshops. He also hopes to take a group of students to an NBA game and send a delegation from VGCC to the National Mentoring Summit, Feb. 1-3, 2017, in Washington, D.C.
For more information on the mentoring initiative, contact Anthony Pope at popea@vgcc.edu or (252) 738-3395.
Educator of Excellence Tracy Thorpe
Vance County Schools has issued the following press release:
Tracy Thorpe has been selected to represent Vance County Schools as the Exceptional Children’s “Educator of Excellence” for 2016-2017.
Thorpe teaches students with autism at Northern Vance High School.
She has a total of seven years of experience in education. Thorpe has a passion for teaching and is dedicated and committed to the academic success of her students.
She will be recognized for her outstanding contributions made to improving students’ outcomes during the 66th N.C. Conference on Exceptional Children at the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, November 9-10.
Vance County: “The State of Our Schools”
Public Information Officer Terri Hedrick has announced in a press release that Vance County Schools will host two information sessions open to anyone in our community during the evenings of Thursday, September 29, and Monday, October 3.
The sessions, entitled “The State of Our Schools,” are scheduled from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, September 29, in the multipurpose room at Clarke Elementary School on Garrett Road south of Henderson, and from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Monday, October 3, in the multipurpose room at New Hope Elementary School on N.C. 39 north of Henderson.
Representatives from each of our 17 schools will be on hand at each of the sessions to share information about their services, programs and achievements for their students. Dr. Anthony Jackson, superintendent of Vance County Schools, also will be sharing information about the achievements of our students and schools during the 2015-2016 school year and our plans for this year and beyond.
Students and parents from our schools, as well as local business and church leaders, and all community residents are urged to attend. We hope citizens from throughout Vance County will attend one of these sessions to receive valuable information about our public school system.
School Bus Driver Training Oct 10-12
Vance County Schools will host school bus driver training sessions Monday, October 10, through Wednesday, October 12, at L.B. Yancey Elementary School.
Interested persons must attend the training on all three days to receive certification. The training will be for individuals to drive school buses for the school system.
The training sessions will begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at approximately 3 p.m. each day.
Those interested in participating in the training sessions must register five days prior to the sessions with the school system’s Transportation Department, located at 226 Welcome Avenue off Raleigh Road south of Henderson. For additional information, call the Transportation Department at 438-5012.