Sacred Heart Catholic School received the Rowan County Farm Bureau’s Going Local Grant for $500 presented by Robin Starnes.
This grant given to teachers across the state to implement agriculture-related curriculum in the classroom. Sacred Heart is using the grant to fund a school-wide vermiculture, or worm, composting program.
Beginning next year, middle school garden club members will collect food waste from the lunch periods and feed the worms. The worms will break down the collected food and create soil the students will use in the school garden.
This school year’s master gardener volunteer Randy Cox has been working with Sacred Heart’s sixth grade every other week to teach them about gardening.
Hillary Shores, Sacred Heart’s middle school science teacher, and Cox have also worked with Danielle Cutting and Sara Drake from the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service to start a 4-H gardening club — The Sacred Heart Cultivators. They meet every Thursday after school. Recently, they built raised beds for the school’s garden.
The Davie Campus of Davidson County Community College will offer a new short-term certification program in industrial maintenance, beginning fall 2014.
Program participants will have the opportunity to earn certificates in basic industrial maintenance, intermediate industrial maintenance and advanced industrial maintenance over a period of two semesters. They will also earn three industry credentials: a career readiness certificate, a National Institute for Metalworking Skills Inc. credential and refrigerant certification.
“This robust program is an incredible opportunity for anyone interested in learning how to install, maintain and repair a variety of types of industrial equipment,” says Teresa Kines, dean of Davidson County Community College’s Davie campus.
The program includes both online and traditional classroom course work. Those enrolled will learn how to repair and maintain electrical and mechanical systems found in today’s commercial and industrial businesses.
Course work will include: electrical, refrigeration, blueprint reading, industrial safety with OSHA certification, hydraulics and pneumatics and HVAC maintenance.
The program will run from August 2014 to May 2015. Scholarship opportunities for this program are available for those who qualify.
For more information or to register for this program, contact Kim Smith, program director, Workforce and Continuing Education at 336-751-2885, ext. 4852 or visit DCCC’s Davie Campus at 1205 Salisbury Road in Mocksville.