Greetings from Greenville, North Carolina.  As CKP continues our expansion across the country we hope to keep you more in the loop or where we are going and what’s going on.

Today I’m at ECU.  Where I learned that there is a distinction between Arrr and Arrrgh.  The Pirates, the mascot of ECU, may say Arrr, which on campus can be confused with Arrrrgh (apparently which MAY have  a completely different meaning).  Who knew the semantics of a Pirate could be so difficult.

They may not be great at semantics but they’ve managed to do a much better job of doing stellar service in their community.  Today I met with a few administrators from ECU, but I was most impressed when I met Judy Baker.  It’s not every day when you get to meet someone who founded a Volunteer and Service Learning Center. 

Judy was just returning from volunteering with a blind woman.  She took her in the car to help her get her medication and found out that the one thing she wished she could do if she could see was give flowers to the local hospice that helped her husband after many trips to the hospital.  So Judy agreed to come back on Wednesday and take her to make flower arrangements and then deliver them to the local hospice branch.

It never ceases to amaze what people involved in service can get done.  But the growth and expansion of Volunter and Service Learning on campus at ECU has clearly been imprinted by a great woman.  Commitment to service was more than a job to Judy, it’s also a lifestyle. 

I got a chance to ask her how she started the program and she told me that she used to work for the University in Health, but she’s always been about service.  So she wrote her own grants, and was promised by the Chancellor that if she could make a difference he’d get her funding.

Well they got their funding, and now ECU has numerous projects based on their impact in the community.  Students at ECU work on projects ranging from health, communications, education and child development and family relations.  I can’t wait to add food recovery, sustainability and leadership to that list.

Check back for more tomorrow to hear about how hard Jeni and Jessica are working.  And maybe even some pictures from some hands on work going on in Greenville.

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