New VGCC Scholarship honors Maria Parham Guild Gift Gallery coordinator
The Guild at Maria Parham Medical Center recently endowed its third scholarship at Vance-Granville Community College. This time, in doing so, it honored the volunteer coordinator for the Guild Gift Gallery at MPMC, Gean Bobbitt of Henderson.
Since Bobbitt shuns the spotlight, Henderson resident and Guild president Anne Bunch had to enlist the help of Bobbitt’s family members to lure her to the gift shop on Feb. 22. There, the unsuspecting Bobbitt said she was “shocked” to see all the volunteers who had gathered to honor her, along with VGCC President Randy Parker and Vice President of Institutional Advancement/Endowment Fund director Jo Anna Jones. “This is our way of thanking you for all that you do for the Guild Gift Gallery,” Bunch told Bobbitt, while presenting $25,000 to the VGCC officials. “You’ve made the gift shop what it is today.”
Bobbitt helped organize the gift shop some 20 years ago and has been coordinating the volunteer staff ever since. Since the early 1990s, the Guild Gift Gallery has offered convenience items and gifts as a service to both patients and visitors to the hospital. The shop moved into the new MPMC patient tower in 2005. Profits from sales are used to provide scholarships to people entering the health care professions.
The new Gean Bobbitt/Guild Gift Gallery Presidential Scholar Award will help deserving VGCC students enrolled in health care-related college programs, such as Nursing , Radiography , Medical Assisting and Pharmacy Technology . Recipients must not be receiving any other form of financial assistance from the college and will be able to keep the scholarship as long as they are enrolled.
President Parker noted that the endowed scholarship would be awarded in perpetuity, starting at the VGCC scholarship award ceremony on Feb. 24. Income from investments on the VGCC Endowment Fund and Scholarship Program has allowed more than 6,000 VGCC scholarships to be awarded since 1982. Scholarships have been established by individuals, businesses, civic groups, churches and the college’s faculty and staff to assist deserving VGCC students. Tax-deductible donations to the VGCC Endowment Fund have often been used to honor or remember a person, group, business or industry with a lasting gift to education.
Above: Surrounded by Guild Gift Gallery volunteers, Gean Bobbitt (seated, left) is honored by Guild president Anne Bunch (seated, right), who presents a contribution to VGCC President Randy Parker (standing, right) in front of the gift shop. On the left edge of the sofa is VGCC Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Endowment Fund director Jo Anna Jones. (VGCC Photo)
