The Elizabethtown Rotary Club meets every Wednesday at the Cape Fear Vineyard & Winery. Last week the club heard presentations from the Youth Ambassadors with Men & Women United for Youth & Families and the Bladen County Sheriff.
Men & Women United for Youth & Families is a non-profit working in the tri-county area of Bladen, Brunswick, and Columbus Counties. The group promotes education, resource awareness, and services to create independent and self–sufficient youth and families.
One program the local group facilitates is the Youth Ambassador Program.
Youth Ambassadors for a Better Community (YABC) is a mission-based youth leadership group founded in 2015. Its mission is to increase community gardens’ quantity, quality, and sustainability across the tri-county area while instilling leadership, entrepreneurship, and social skills with youth.
In 2018 the Youth Ambassadors partnered with North Carolina State University’s Vacation Viddles Program. This week the group spoke to the Elizabethtown Rotary Club about the Vacation Vittles Program.
LaVonia Lewis, along with Youth Ambassador Molly Bennett, explained the Vacation Viddles program to the Rotarians. Vacation Viddles allows the Youth Ambassadors to coordinate and distribute fresh produce from community farmers to vacationers and visitors during the summer months.
Vacation Viddles connects vacationers with local food provided by farmers in Bladen, Brunswick, and Columbus counties. Lewis noted this program teaches the youth entrepreneurial skills and farming skills. The ambassadors sell Vacation Viddles produce to vacation areas around the coast, pop-up farmer’s markets, and Cape Fear Farmer’s Market in Elizabethtown. The produce is grown in gardens located in East Arcadia and Sandy Fields.
After the Youth Ambassadors finished their presentation, Rotarian Dr. Cathy Gantz introduced guest speaker Bladen County Sheriff Jim McVicker to the club.
Dr. Gantz noted Sheriff McVicker is a devoted husband and father. He served as a Lumberton police officer from 1973 to 1977, then the North Carolina State Highway Patrol accepted him. He served with the NCHP for 30 years and retired from NCHP in 2001. He taught various law enforcement training courses throughout the area before securing his seat as Bladen County Sheriff in 2010.
Once Sheriff McVicker took the podium at the Rotary meeting, he said, “It’s your Sheriff’s Office. I’m just here to serve.”
According to his remarks, Bladen County is 900 square miles and the third-largest county in NC. There are 127 personnel members of the Bladen County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff McVicker reported the Sheriff’s Office has four squads with four deputies per squad serving the county, 11 investigators, and the Sheriff’s Office is responsible for all civil processes with deputies serving at the courthouse. He praised the work of the Sheriff’s Deputies out in the field and at the courthouse.
He continued, deputies also perform duties at the local schools, including Bladen Community College. Sheriff McVicker said, “School Resource Officers maintain a presence at the schools. They are like a father figure.”
Noted in his presentation, the local charter school, Emereau: Bladen, recently contracted with the Sheriff’s Office to pay the salary of a Sheriff’s Deputy as a School Resource Officer.
Currently, there are three telecommunicators at the Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff McVicker said, “My hat goes off to those telecommunicators.”
Two part-time pastors provide services to the Sheriff’s Office. Pastor Warren Hill volunteers his time and visits with the Sheriff’s Office’s staff regularly. According to Sheriff McVicker, Pastor Hill does a great job serving the local law enforcement.
Next, the Sheriff explained the Bladen County Detention Center currently holds 120 inmates, which is down a lot because of COVID-19.
According to the Sheriff, there are 80 to 90 federal inmates housed at the center. The county is paid $75 a day to house the federal inmates. In addition, there are 10 to 20 misdemeanor offenders confined at the center. The county is paid about $40 a day to house the misdemeanor offenders.
The Sheriff’s Office made a positive income from the federal inmate program of $560,895.92 during the last fiscal year. Sheriff McVicker said, “That’s money that doesn’t have to come out of your pocket. We use that money to pay off the loan for the detention center.”
The misdemeanor inmates keep the grounds up at the county facilities and exchange their services for time off their sentences. Before COVID, the misdemeanor inmates would also do roadside clean-up, but the roadside clean-up program has been on hold due to the Pandemic.
Sheriff McVicker presented information about the Are You OK program for elderly residents. He said there are 15 citizens enrolled in the program. Every day those enrolled in the program receive a well-check call from the Sheriff’s Office. If the resident does not respond to the phone call, an emergency responder is sent to the resident’s location to do an in-person well-check.
Then the Sheriff told the Rotarians about the Robeson, Columbus, and Bladen Counties Community Impact Team. He said, “We’ve had a lot of success with that. We are concentrating on the sellers and not the users.”
The Sheriff’s Office distributes Narcan, a drug that reverses the effects of narcotic overdoses. Sheriff McVicker said, “Some of my youngest Deputies have saved lives.”
He continued, “Things you’ve never heard of before are now happening in Bladen County. We’ve had three officer-involved shootings since I’ve been in office.”
Before concluding, Sheriff McVicker spoke about how the community supports the Sheriff’s Office. Citizens give generously to the Sheriff’s Office. One citizen just gave a generous donation for equipment to the Office, Sheriff McVicker stated. He added a grant from Four County Electric Membership Cooperative that allowed for the purchase of a boat to help during hurricanes. The Wildlife Office donated another boat. Duke Energy provided a grant to enable the Sheriff’s Office to purchase two drones.
Last but not least, an old post office building in Kelly was granted for use as a sub-office for all law enforcement. The Sheriff’s Office also tried to coordinate a sub-station office in the East Arcadia area; however, the Town Council of East Arcadia declined to approve a sub-station. Sheriff McVicker said, “You may contact the Town about that issue.”
In closing, Sheriff McVicker said, “I’m proud to be your Sheriff. Thank you for the opportunity.”
The Rotary Club voted to donate $500 to the Boys and Girls Homes for the fiscal year 2020-2021 before adjourning.
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