Queens University of Charlotte recently received the 2013 Governor’s Medallion Award, becoming just one of 20 organizations in the state so honored. The award recognizes outstanding volunteer service and stewardship. NC State University’s new Feed the Pack Food Pantry also received two campus-wide honors for its work providing emergency food assistance to needy students.
NC First Lady Ann McCrory, Queens CAC director Pat Taft, and Gov. McCrory
Since 2011, Queens has focused its service efforts on a partnership with Sedgefield Elementary School, a Title I school in Charlotte where more than 90% of students receive free-or-reduced price lunch. The project caught the attention of the North Carolina Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service and led to a Governor’s Medallion Award. Sedgefield staff nominated Queens for the honor.
“Queens has provided volunteers that are both dedicated and supportive, and it is a joy to watch them build strong relationships with our students,” said Principal Ivy Gill. “We are incredibly grateful to the entire Queens community for coming together to improve the lives of the children we serve.”
Queens freshmen built a garden area at a local school.
Over the past year, Queens has sent volunteers to Sedgefield five days a week to serve as mentors, lunch buddies and tutors. In addition to quality time spent in the classroom, Queens students built a community garden and started an afterschool garden club, the lacrosse team re-organized the media center and staffed an accelerated reader program, and the unviersity’s Health and Wellness Center collected and donated more than 650 books so each child could have at least one book of their own.
“We are very honored to be a Governor’s Medallion Award recipient,” said Pat Taft, director of the Center for Active Citizenship. “I am so proud of all of the Queens students for their hard work and many volunteer hours served.”
NC Campus Compact has played a role in the project. Since 2011, an AmeriCorps VISTA member from the NC Campus Compact VISTA program has been hosted by Queens to support the development of the Sedgefield partnership.
Queens also was named to the 2013 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, an annual award that highlights the role colleges and universities play in solving community problems and placing students on a lifelong path of civic engagement.
NC State University’s Feed the Pack Food Pantry hosted by the Center for Student Leadership Ethics and Public Service was also recently honored with two campus-wide awards. The pantry was launched in fall 2012 and has provided food to over 100 members of the NC State Community.
The Office of Institutional Equity & Diversty awarded the pantry the Outstanding Student Organization Award and a $500 cash prize. The nomination stated that “Every aspect of the Pantry, from the governing documents to the volunteers to the Student Leadership team, encourage diversity, inclusion, and equity to their very core. The students on the leadership team are dedicated to finding the best way possible to include all those in need in the community and to provide them with the assistance they deserve.” Read more here.
The pantry was also recognized by the Office of Extension, Engagement, and Economic Development during their recent “Celebrating the Engaged Campus” awards cerermony.