Representatives from law enforcement agencies throughout the area attended the first annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Luncheon at the Bamberg Job Corps Center last week. The Job Corps luncheon was attended by law enforcement representatives from Orangeburg, Denmark, the Bamberg County Sheriff’s office, the judiciary, victims advocates, Job Corps Security, Voorhees Security and peripheral agencies.

In her welcoming statement, Bamberg Job Corps Center Director Mitra Vazeen, said proudly that “the Job Corps students are not felons, they are not criminals. Up to three or four months ago they were enrolled in high schools in South Carolina, Florida, and Atlanta, where most of our student come from. What is so great are the economic resources that Job Corps gives to small communities such as Bamberg. We employ about 93 staff members, most from the local community. Job Corps, like its name,” she says, “has a role to train young men and women for jobs. Our students,’ she emphasized, “are generally more skilled (for the work place) than traditional high school graduates because they’re learning employability skills, social and interpersonal skills. I am really proud of them,” she said, grinning at the Culinary Arts students who’d prepared the excellent luncheon for the event. “Not a dollar,” she emphasized, :comes from state or local (coffers) but is entirely operated and paid for through the US, Department of Labor. Often,” she explained, “these students are called ‘At Risk Youth,”’ but they are not. They are ‘At Promise Youth.’”

Director of Security at Orangeburg-Technical College, Douglas Stokes, spoke briefly of the economic downturn that has suddenly hit the area and the pleasure he felt to be recognized “for the job we do. In the past few months,” he said, “we have seen more murders in the area than we’ve seen in a very, very long time.”

Bamberg Mayor Alton McCollum, the main speaker for the event, said that “it’s an honor to stand here and recognize the men and women of law enforcement. Law enforcement,” he said, “is a service, a service to the people of this community and to the state. It’s a service very much like preachers and teachers, responsible for all citizens. They’re called out for duty day and night, seven days a week, and often put their lives on the line to protect and to serve. It’s a service,” he said, “that when you ask a child what he or she wants to be when he or she grows up, invariably it’s to be a policeman or a fire fighter. We salute you. We admire you. It’s a calling.” At that, the entire crowd stood and gave a rousing applause to the men and women who serve our communities.

“When I initially started to put this together,” Job Corps staffer Peggy Lingard said, “I didn’t know what was going to happen or who was going to show. We will be having our graduation ceremony on May 8 at 1 p.m. Our staff and students will be involved in Global Youth Service Day April 24 and 25 in the community. Students will be volunteering at the nursing home on that day, Adopt a Highway and working in Columbia on a food drive with Golden Harvest Food Bank.”

Following the luncheon. Guests had an opportunity to visit the academic, food service, vocational training and residential dormitories.