Johnston Community College Faculty, Staff, and Students Participate in Area Book Drive

November 5, 2002

When Dr. Don Reichard, president of Johnston Community College, asked the campus to participate in a local book drive to promote literacy, JCC’s faculty, staff, and students responded enthusiastically.

Dr. Reichard notified the JCC campus community of the dire need for books after learning that 25% of Johnston County households with children ages preschool to fifth grade do not own a single book. Books collected during the drive are currently being distributed to elementary schools throughout the Smithfield-Selma area and the books will be given to students who do not own books. The Education Committee of the Smithfield-Selma Chamber of Commerce sponsored the book drive.

Of the 750 books collected during the drive, approximately 300 were collected from Johnston Community College. Of the participants JCC, Tori Gidlow decorated a collection box for the books and Evelyn Stevens collected over one hundred books through donations from the Smithfield Public Library, Dollar Tree, and Christian Thrift Store. Both Gidlow and Stevens are students in the Early Childhood curriculum at JCC.

Priscilla Prevette, Early Childhood coordinator/instructor, (pictured left in photo) and Evelyn Stevens, JCC Early Childhood student, present Dr. Don Reichard, JCC president, with books collected during JCC’s Book Drive.