Discover What WVJC Does During Back-To-School Time!
On Tuesday, August 23, 2022, West Virginia Junior College in Bridgeport, WV host the 2nd annual Back to School Bash from 2-6 pm. The bash was directed by the students in the Practical Nursing program with support from the campus. This event allowed the practical nursing students to learn the expectations and procedures needed for a community event. The Back to School Bash was open to the community to help families prepare for the school year.
This year the practical nursing students lined up a lot of family fun activities, especially for the kiddos. The students had two bounce houses for toddlers (ages 1-5) and school-age children (ages 6-12). There were also games and activities where everyone could win prizes. The practical nursing students had a lot of fun creating carnival-style games for the community this year, such as water balloon toss, lucky duck, and ring toss. They also had cornhole and face painting back for another year. This was a big favorite last year, and the WVJC added a selfie station where friends and families could take pictures to remember the eventful day.
They also had some activities that were fun for all ages, as well as a dunk tank. The community and students took turns dunking Mckenzie Brown, the Nursing Student Services Coordinator. She was soaked from head to toe!
Having community support surrounding education is very important in children’s lives. This event showed that students have support from WVJC, the community, and emergency services. We feel students must learn about emergency services. We were so excited to have the Bridgeport Police Department attend along with their K-9 unit to demonstrate their training. The Army reserve was there too, handing out some Army swag!
The IT faculty and students volunteered to grill hot dogs. The k-9 unit was their biggest customer! The desserts, pastries, and drinks were donated from WVJC and the practical nursing students!
All individuals who came out received one raffle ticket to choose their raffle of choice. Individuals did have the option to purchase more raffle tickets.
Here is a list of prizes that were raffled.
- $25 Shoe Carnival coupons
- Gift Baskets with a $35 & $125 value
- $50 Walmart gift cards
- $10 Subway gift cards
It was amazing seeing all the family’s excitement when they won!
We were so excited for everyone to come to celebrate and kick off this school year. Last year WVJC’s Back to School Bash supplied almost 250 bookbags for students and completed about 100 sports physicals. This year the LPNs wanted to continue this idea by giving out over 300 book bags with school supplies! United Health Center donated the school supplies. Nurse Practitioners from United Health Center volunteered this year and offered free sports physicals to our attendees. So many bookbags were donated that some were left over after the event. The practical nursing students hand delivered the bookbags to after-school programs and daycare facilities in the Bridgeport area so that even if some students could not join in the fun at the back-to-school bash, they could still get some new supplies. It was fantastic to see our practical nursing students going out into the community to collect donations for the Back to School Bash and hand out donations personally. The practical nursing students did an amazing job planning, preparing, and partaking in the Back to School Bash community event, and we are looking forward to next year. Keep an eye out for WVJC Back to School Bash 3rd annual event in July 2023.