Sumter Native Leads Limestone College to National Award

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David Kelly of APCA (right) presents Limestone junion Donta Ingram of Sumter with the organization's first Service Engagement Award.

GAFFNEY, SC (04/30/2012)(readMedia)-- Limestone College student Donta Ingram of Sumter led the college to being recognized with the inaugural Association for Promotion of Campus Activities'(APCA) Service Engagement Award. The award was presented to members of Limestone's Activity Board during the APCA's national conference in Jacksonville, Florida.

Specifically, Limestone was recognized for its Limestone CARES initiative, a herculean project spearheaded by Ingram who is also president of the Limestone College Student Government Association.

Held during the first week of the 2011-2012 academic year, Limestone CARES featured

• Over 300 students, faculty, and staff packaging 62,034 hunger relief meals with Stop Hunger Now. This was the largest, meals-per-student college event in the nation. For an enrollment of 860 Day Program students, Limestone packaged 72 meals per student. By comparison, North Carolina State University-with an enrollment of approximately 35,000-packaged 100,000 meals, which is less than 3 meals per student.

• More than 500 students and staff volunteered throughout Cherokee County. They completed painting, landscaping, and cleanup projects at every middle school, eight out of 12 elementary schools, and two churches. They also cleaned walls and stocked shelves at the local food pantry and served lunch at one soup kitchen.

During Limestone CARES, students provided well over 2,000 service hours to community and world service. Since then, teams of students have continued to answer calls for volunteers: helping with school festivals, planting trees in the Habitat neighborhood, and more.

"There were a lot of good nominations from other colleges, but the level of involvement with students, faculty, and staff alike at Limestone was incredible," said David Kelly, one of the judges for the APCA Engagement Award. "The level of care and attention to detial shown by Donta were just out of this world. What was particularly impressive about Limestone CARES was that the Limestone students didn't just say what they would provide to the local schools and organizations; rather, they reached out to the organizations asking for their individual needs and said 'we're going to provide the people and resources to fulfill those needs. This is the epitome of what a partnership between a college and the local community should be."