MWCC's weekly e-newsletter

Friday, Dec. 16, 2005

MWCC STUDENTS COLLECT GIFTS FOR CLIENTS OF BATTERED WOMEN’S RESOURCES

By Kimberly B. Caisse

Ten Mount Wachusett Community College human services students spearheaded a holiday gift drive for the clients of Battered Women’s Resources Inc. in Leominster. Operated at the Leominster campus, the students collected more than 100 items from students, faculty and staff between Thanksgiving and Thursday, Dec. 8.

From left, Adjunct Professor Yvonne Noyes-Stevens and students Niesha Johnson, Judy Segev (front) and Aurora Vargas stand in front of the gift items they and seven other students collected for Battered Women’s Resources Inc. in Leominster.

The gift drive was one of three projects required in the Human Services Internship Experience course, a requirement to earn a certificate in human services and a professional elective for an associate’s degree in human services. In addition to projects, students must serve as interns for 150 hours during a semester at a local human services agency.

Students borrowed a handmade holiday tree from Lancaster Academy and secured paper mittens with item categories to it using clothes pins, explained Adjunct Professor Yvonne Noyes-Stevens. “They loaded up the tree two times with mittens,” she said.

The students delivered the items to Battered Women’s Resources on Monday, Dec. 12.

The Internship Experience requires human services students to submit time sheets, receive four evaluations during the semester (two by a supervisor), participate in a resume workshops at the Career Center of North Central Massachusetts, keep journals about their placements and meet once a week to review their placements and plan their community service projects.

The fall semester’s interns also worked with several Leominster hair salons to plan a hair-cutting benefit, which netted $640 for the American Red Cross, and baked and collected items for Thanksgiving food baskets for area needy.

The spring semester’s Internship Experience students will work with the Human Services Club, newly established at the Leominster campus, to organize a hat, blanket, coat and mitten collection for the homeless in Leominster and Fitchburg.

For more information on this course and MWCC’s Human Services Program, contact the Admissions Office at (978) 630-9110 or admissions@mwcc.mass.edu.

MWCC’S ADULT BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM AND GENERATION LINK

PARTNER TO HELP AREA SHUT-INS

By Kimberly B. Caisse

MWCC’s Adult Basic Education program is working with the Multi-Service Center’s Generation Link project to collect a variety of items for shut-ins living at assisted living and long-term care facilities in central Massachusetts.

Generation Link, a project funded by the United Way of North Central Massachusetts, is seeking donations of items such as toiletries, lap blankets, slippers, crackers/cookies, diabetic candies, socks and nightgowns. (Generation Link cannot distribute perishables, hair conditioners, bubble bath, candles or liquid soaps.)

The project’s coordinator, Barbara McGowan, will wrap the donated items and take them to her clients, many of whom receive no gifts or visits from anyone. During the holidays, especially, McGowan believes everyone should receive a gift and a visit.

Donations can be dropped off at the Multi-Service Center, 14 Manning Ave., Suite 402, Leominster, and MWCC’s Regional Adult Basic Education Center, 100 Jackson Road, Devens.

For more information, contact ABE Assistant Director Julie Crowley at jcrowley@mwcc.mass.edu or (978) 630-9526.

Generation Link is a collaborating partner of the Pathways for Success family literacy program at MWCC.

Other MWCC News :

• The MWCC Library will be open for extended hours during the fall semester’s final exam period: Friday, Dec. 9, open until 7 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 10, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 11, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and Saturday, Dec. 17, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, call the Library’s main desk at (978) 630-9125.

• MWCC’s Practical Nursing program will hold its third annual Pinning Ceremony for the Class of 2005 Tuesday, Dec. 20 at 6 p.m. in the Raymond M. LaFontaine Fine Arts Center auditorium. These graduates went through the program at the college’s Orange campus. For more information, contact Kathy Suchocki at ksuchocki@mwcc.mass.edu or call at (978) 630-9544.

• Get your tickets today for the Hurricane Katrina benefit concert featuring The Ethan Stone Band on Friday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. (Snow date Jan. 14.) All proceeds will benefit the Southeast

	Ethan Stone in concert. (Photo taken by Dante Parker.)

Mississippi Rural Health Initiative, a network of 12 community health clinics greatly affected by Hurricane Katrina. The band’s repertoire covers a wide range of music, from new material from Coldplay, Audioslave, Radiohead, Beck, Ben Folds, Lifehouse, Staind, and more to classic rock from Santana, The Allman Brothers, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and many more. The event is being co-sponsored by the Hurricane Relief Committee, the MWCC Alumni Association, C.A.R.S. and the Eagle 99.9. Tickets, which can be purchased through the Theatre at the Mount Box Office and online at http://www.mwcc.edu/HTML/gmod/tam/stone/ethanStone.html, are $15; $10 for students. For more information, contact the box office at (978) 632-2403 or Melissa Sargent at (978) 630-9273.

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