The college will collect supplies from Feb. 13 through Feb. 24 in partnership with Calvary Bible Baptist Church to benefitting schools in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Turkey.
Rowan College at Burlington County, in partnership with the Calvary Bible Baptist Church, is collecting school supplies to benefit developing schools across the globe.
The college will collect supplies from Feb. 13 through Feb. 24, benefitting schools in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Turkey. Later this spring, the supplies will be sent along with used school furniture as part of an effort to spread education across the globe.
Suggested items for donation include pens, notebooks, pencils, highlighters, paper and pencil sharpeners. The college is accepting donations in Laurel Hall, TEC and Votta Pavilion in Mt. Laurel; the Parker Center in Pemberton; and the Willingboro Campus.
“Nelson Mandela once said that ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,’ and that power should not be limited by geography,” RCBC President Paul Drayton said. “Students all over the world deserve the opportunity to learn and change the world.”
Last year, the Calvary Bible Baptist Church, in Willingboro, collected 300 desks, 150 metal chairs and more than 600 books that were used for a new school in Sierra Leone, Africa. The supplies came from RCBC, Delanco and Palmyra school districts and provided the small school with better supplies than the local university.
“We are overwhelmed by the generosity of our communities and blessed to be part of this incredible experience,” said the Rev. Aaron McCullough, the church’s pastor who travelled to the small village of Gbangbama for the school’s opening ceremony. “We are spreading education to small villages that have nothing and are extremely grateful for whatever we bring. Our biggest challenge now is raising the funds to ship the material overseas.”
This year, the effort plans to send three containers to Turkey, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Shipping a container costs several thousand dollars.
Anyone who would like to make a monetary donation may contact the Lee Slater, the Calvary Baptist Bible Church administrator at (609) 871–3337 or [email protected].
Anyone interested in donating school supplies or conducting their own drive may contact RCBC’s Community Events Coordinator Megan Riffle at [email protected] or (856) 291–4260.
