28

Hands that help

Many people would be hesitant to get on a scale every day, but Melissa Carr gladly gave up her discomfort in order to support a great cause.

Carr served as the president for the Terrell branch of TVCC’s chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society in the 2012-13 school year. Among her other duties, Carr was responsible

for weighing the amount of food brought in each day during a fall food drive on the Terrell campus.“At the beginning, I weighed myself,” said Carr. “Then each day I would gather up the bags of food, get on the

scale, and subtract my weight. It was fun, but there was a lot of food. I really enjoyed it.”The drive, sponsored by the Terrell students in the Iota Alpha chapter, brought in more than 9,500 pounds. Phi Theta Kappa sponsor Lou Ann Everett said this is the largest amount the group has ever collected.“It’s fantastic,” she said. “And we are using it all to help those in need in Kaufman County.”

A tradition of service

From its inception, HCJC-TVCC has long been a part of the communities it serves. In the college’s 67-year history, those involved with the institution have dedicated themselves to community improvement by participating in literally thousands of service projects and volunteering with a wide variety of organizations.

The 2012-13 school year was no exception. The students started the year ready to carry on the tradition. On all four campuses, students, faculty members and staff worked to serve the surrounding communities.

“This past year TVCC students, faculty and staff spent 15,000 hours in service to the community through assistance with programs such as Kiwanis Pancake Day, trash pick-ups, Relay for Life, blood drives, and reading programs, just to name a few,” said Dr. Jay Kinzer, the college’s vice president of student services.

Students and faculty members from throughout the TVCC system participated this year in a variety of com-munity service projects, including:• Food drives on the Terrell and Athens campuses,• Relay for Life in Kaufman and Anderson counties,• Trash cleanups,• Teddy bear drive to benefit Dallas-area children’s hospitals,• Supply drive for victims of the West explosion,• Blood drives,• Pink events to support breast cancer patients and research,• Hoops for Hope benefit basketball game to benefit children with congenital heart defects, and• Benefit garage sales for organizations such as the Pinnacle Club. TVCC was named the Large Business of the Month for May 2013 by the Athens Chamber of Commerce.

The award, said Chamber Chairman Mark Allen, was to recognize TVCC for being an economic driver in the community as well as for the thousands of hours of community service donated by faculty, staff and students each year.

TVCC students, employees honor the tradition of community service

AT LEFT: TVCC students Luis Espinoza of Forney and Melissa Carr of Terrell show off the more than 9,500 pounds of food collected by students at the college’s Terrell campus.

29

Recognizing dedication

For the first time in 2012, the college’s student activities department hosted a banquet at the end of the school year. The purpose of the event was to honor those who had dedicated large amounts of time to community service.

The student who gave the most time to community service in the 2012-13 academic year was sophomore Chel-sea Malone, who dedicated more than 460 hours to community service. Among her other roles, Malone served as the president of the Student Government Association.

“Keeping track of community service hours has allowed us to see just how much time these students are dedicating,” said Kinzer. “In the case of Chelsea and several other students, they dedicated literally weeks of their time to helping others. That deserves special recognition and we were glad to be able to honor those students and employees this year.”

As part of the banquet, the Student Activities Department gave the first Mike Peek Student Leader of the Year Award to sophomore Jaimee Bowles. The Peek award will be given each year to the top student leader at TVCC as chosen by the office of student activities via a campus-wide nomination process.

The award was named on behalf of Mike Peek, who served as advisor for the TVCC Student Senate and as director of student activities for more than 30 years. During those years, the student senate received numerous awards and was consistently recognized as one of the top programs in Texas.

“His service to TVCC and student activities may never be matched,” said Kinzer.

National honors

Because of the large number of hours served, numerous groups and individuals at TVCC qualified for the President’s Volunteer Service Award (PVSA). Those awards were also presented at the banquet.

The PVSA is a national award designed to honor the hundreds of thousands of people across America who give their precious time to communities.

TVCC serves as a National PVSA Certifying Organization and is approved to review and verify a volunteer’s hours and distribute the PVSA honors.

The award is given on three levels. Bronze awards go to organizations that have completed between 200 and 499 hours of community service during the past year and individuals with between 100 and 200 hours. Silver awards are given to groups with between 500 and 999 hours of community service and individuals

with between 200 and 500 hours. The gold award goes to groups with more than 1,000 hours and

individuals with more than 500 hours of service.TVCC’s Student Government Association took the gold

award for 4,204 hours of community service in 2012-13. Other organizations receiving the gold award were Cardinal Football (3,770 hours), Cardettes (2,546 hours) and Phi Theta Kappa (1,206 hours).

In addition, 11 individuals and organizations received the Silver Award and 26 received Bronze Awards.

A little competition

In typical college fashion, there was also some friendly competition involved to provide incentive and add a little fun to TVCC’s 2012-13 community service efforts.

For example, in the athletics department, teams compete each year for the coveted Cardinal Cup.

The cup is the prize for a fall/spring semester-long competition in which the college’s athletic department teams/groups are awarded points for supporting each other and for community service.

The Lady Cardinals volleyball team edged out the football team by the closest margin in the three-year history of the competition, scoring 606 points for a 34-point winning margin.

Community service played a big role in the Lady Cardinals’ raising the Cardinal Cup at the banquet. They logged 700 hours of giving back to the community.

As busy as they were, Lady Cardinal Volleyball coach Tosha Spain said she was especially proud her players were still able to maintain a 3.25 GPA overall.

“I am proud of the girls for winning (the Cardinal Cup),” Spain said. “They have been doing community service every week since September and have constantly been at other sports’ games supporting their fellow student-athletes. They are an amazing group of girls on and off the court and continue to make me a better person and coach every day.”

There was a little competition thrown into the Terrell food drive as well. Everett said that was probably one of the reasons the drive was so successful.

In a good-natured spirit of giving, the teachers competed among each other to see who could get their classes to bring in the most food. The winning teacher got a prize.

The unofficial winner, said Everett, was math instructor Tyson Spizzirri with 4,156 pounds of food. But since Spizzirri is also a sponsor of the Phi Theta Kappa chapter, the official winner was Erica Richardson with 1,416 pounds of food donated.

The competition was fun, said Carr, but the most important piece was that they helped the needy have a better holiday season because of their work.

“We really feel we accomplished something good,” said Carr. “And that’s what it’s all for, helping others.”

1

2

30

3

4

5 6

7

8 9

1. TVCC was honored by the Athens Chamber of Commerce as Large Business of the Month for May 2013. 2. Lady Cardinals help out in Athens at the annual Volunteer Showcase. 3. Sophomore Jaimee Bowles (left) receives the first Mike Peek Student Leader of the Year Award. 4. Student Government Association members take a break while working at the annual Athens Kiwanis Club Pancake Day. 5. Chelsea Malone receives an award for giving 460 hours to community service during the 2012-13 academic year. 6. Members of the Cardinal football team pose for a photo during a cleanup day at Kiwanis Park. 7. Business students make a donation of clothing items to the Family Peace Project. 8. TVCC Science Club students stop for an impromptu biology lesson during a litter cleanup on the Athens campus. 9. TVCC students finish up a day cleaning the stretch of road that has been adopted by the SGA.

31