Cleveland State Community College has been busy spreading good cheer this holiday season throughout its five-county service area. The college had a variety of projects and services the faculty, staff and students were all involved in throughout the community.
"We pride ourselves on being the college that always puts community first,” stated Dr. Bill Seymour, CSCC President. “This is particularly evident during the holiday season as our students, faculty and staff act to help others in so many ways.”
The Department of Service-Learning sponsored the H.O.P.E. (Health, Opportunity, Protection and Encouragement) Center's Children's Advocacy Center of Bradley County for the third year by placing their Christmas Angel Tree on the first floor of the Career Education Building on the CSCC Campus.
“The H.O.P.E. Center is one of our Service-Learning Community Partners,” stated Sherry Holloway, Service-Learning Coordinator. “They serve people in Bradley, McMinn, Monroe, and Polk counties whose lives have been affected by violent abuse in their homes. The Children's Advocacy Center specifically serves child victims of sexual abuse and their families. This year's Angel Tree included cards for 22 children and youth (ranging from newborn to age 17) being served through the Children's Advocacy Center, whose families are experiencing financial difficulty. The cards reflect each child's “Christmas Wish List” that includes clothing, shoes, toys, games, books….all the things that children love! CSCC employees selected the cards very quickly, and really did a great job of fulfilling Christmas wishes!”
The Business & Technology Department supported another one of CSCC’s Service-Learning Community Partners, People Helping People of Benton/Polk County.
According to Holloway, “People Helping People has been a tremendous support to the West Polk County area. They serve families, veterans, seniors, homeless—whoever is in need—by providing a community kitchen, thrift store, food distribution program, low-cost child care, and assistance with utility and rent payments. The agency’s director, Becky Wilcoxon, is an alumnus of Cleveland State. She and her family began the nonprofit organization in 2009 after recovering from unexpected hardship due to family illness and job loss.”
The Business & Technology Department donated non-perishable foods, as well as made financial donations that People Helping People will use to purchase fresh foods for families in need. The team also donated toys for the West Polk Empty Stocking Fund and Polk County Toys for Tots; agencies that work out of the People Helping People facility during the Christmas holidays.
CSCC has a number of faculty who have successfully incorporated service-learning into their coursework. Two of those are Jana Pankey and Donna Brogdon. Pankey, Associate Professor, Human Services/Social Work Program, organized a “Free Store Event” at the Lay Street Apartment Complex. She asked that faculty, staff and students donate basic necessities, and then her students distributed such items to the residents at the complex. “This was our largest event yet, and we were able to distribute hundreds of items and food to the approximately 150 people who were in need of basic necessities. After our event, the items that were left over were given to the Boys and Girls Club (especially the children’s storybooks) and The Caring Place to be distributed to other families in our area.”
Donna Brogdon, Assistant Professor of Business, had her students in her Introduction to Business class work with the Salvation Army this semester in preparation for their Angel Tree and bell ringing events. “I split my class into three groups: Volunteer Recruitment and Retention, Marketing, and Meaningful Service,” stated Brogdon. “This project was to show personal growth, academic enhancement and civic responsibility.
According to Joel Rogers, the Salvation Army Representative, “With the help of the Meaningful Service Committee, our Angel Tree program has registered over 600 angels for our Christmas season, and with their help at the adoption table and working with our corporate partnerships, they have all been adopted, which has never happened this early in the year for us!”
The Volunteer Recruitment and Retention Committee planned, organized and facilitated a Fall Service Festival which connected the Salvation Army with 12 groups who rang bells this Christmas.
Rogers stated, “That represents a value of $4,800 to our organization. The bell ringing they did raised us $437.18, and the bell ringer essential packs they packed provided 80 days of hand warmers, snacks and more for our volunteer bell ringers to encourage and thank them for their service!”
The Marketing Committee’s efforts to plan and execute a marketing strategy for the Jingle Bell Jog helped them to maintain a participant level the same as in previous years, despite a second 5k being scheduled by another group in Cleveland for the same day.
Rogers continued, “We had 72 participants, and with the sponsorships and door prizes they helped us collect from local businesses, along with registration fees, we estimate over $3,000 in profits from this event to benefit our Youth Programs!”
Brogdon said, “This project has been awesome with FULL participation from all my students. This was very unexpected, but rewarding.”
Each year, the CSCC Staff Senate has a Nursing Home Gift Tree, where the staff provides Christmas gifts to the residents at one of the nursing homes in each of the five counties in CSCC’s service area. This year, CSCC provided gifts to approximately 70 residents at all of the nursing homes, including Bradley Healthcare and Rehabilitation of Cleveland, Life Care of Athens, Life Care of Copper Basin, BrookWood Nursing Center of Decatur and Wood Village of Sweetwater.
“This was my second year working with this project, and it has been quite a rewarding experience,” stated Sheila Smith, Staff Senate Senator.
The Medical Assistant Student Association recently organized a collection of over $1000 worth of products for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Chattanooga. This provides a “home away from home” for families with critically-ill or injured children and supports programs that improve the health and well-being of children. The House serves 26 families each night.
In addition to local community, some faculty, staff, students and even alumni traveled to Memphis to support St. Jude by participating in the annual St. Jude Marathon weekend.
Miranda Cagle, Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Advisor, said, “A couple of years ago, The Kansas Region of Phi Theta Kappa invited the Tennessee region to join in on participating in the yearly St. Jude Marathon weekend in Memphis, TN. This year, our chapter decided to participate, but in a different way – we decided to register as marathon relay team, to support St. Jude and the Tennessee-Kansas partnership while also building our own sense of teamwork. This event also tied into the chapter’s current honors project, which is cancer awareness.
Bo Marshall, PTK Honors in Action Officer, said, “Each year the Phi Theta Kappa has an Honors in Action Project, of which I had the opportunity to be the Honors in Action Officer making this project mine; however, if I did not have the help of the other officers and members there is no way this project could have been accomplished. Our goal was to inform the community about the risk factors, prevention methods, and different treatments of several different types of cancer.”
Marshall continued, “During my 6.2 miles of the marathon, I was blessed with the opportunity to run through the St. Jude campus, and all of the patients who were healthy enough were bundled up on the sides of the streets giving the runners high fives as they ran by. While I ran through the campus, I cried, not because of the pain my legs were in, but because of how inspirational those patients were who stood by my side while I ran. All together, the St. Jude marathon raised almost $8 million, which only runs the facility for one day; however, that is a day extra they will have.”
Cagle stated, “Collectively, we paid a total of $400 to participate and support St. Jude. In the end, I think it was a great bonding experience, with talks already underway to enter another relay event in the spring.”