DOBSON — Surry Community College’s Board of Trustees recognized the college’s nursing program at Monday night’s meeting.

The program held an open house in November to showcase the new lab facility it has created with a $450,000 GoldenLEAF grant. To go along with the new facilities, the program boasted a 94.4 percent passing rate on the state board examination for nursing students.

More recently, the program was challenged to recruit organ donors by Carolina Donor Services. The organization challenged the students to recruit more than 21, hoping that it would come up with 100 to 200 donors at the maximum. However, when the total count came in on Monday, the group of students had recruited 1,016 people to be donors. According to Carolina Donor Services, that is more than any college or university in the state and may be more than any in the country, though those numbers are still being verified.

“We are so proud of these students for what they have accomplished,” said Dr. Deborah Friedman, president of SCC.

Board members also received updates on the construction projects ongoing around the county.

Work on the Shelton-Badgett NC Center for Viticulture and Enology is progressing as can be evidenced by driving past the main entrance to the campus.

“It’s a slower process just because of the specialty nature of the building,” said Susan Pendergraft, vice president of administrative services, while also noting that construction is still on schedule.

To go along with the new facility at the entrance to the campus, the college is looking to erect a new sign at the entrance. Several options were designed by students in the graphic arts department and the facilities committee chose one they thought would be suitable. The full board voted to accept that recommendation and the process of engineering that sign can now begin.

“It is a stable classic sign that should be able to carry us forward. It incorporates materials from all the structures on campus,” Pendergraft said of the sign which includes stonework, wood and precast material.

Progress on the Centers for Learning, Education and Retraining also is continuing. The completion date for the center in Pilot Mountain has been moved up from mid-March to the end of February.

“We’re excited about the fact that we are actually ahead of schedule,” said Dr. George Sappenfield, vice president of corporate and continuing education.

The Elkin center received $200,000 from the governor to bring its total funding to $800,000 of the necessary $1 million. Bids for the project will go out this week with an estimated completion date of mid-June. The college also approved a lease agreement with the city of Elkin for the facility which was called for in the grant proposal.

According to Sappenfield, the college also received approval from the GoldenLEAF Foundation to move ahead with ordering furniture for the centers and to start the hiring process for personnel.

The Uptown Wine and Gallery in Yadkinville held its grand opening in December and features the Surry Cellars label wines along with another label and artwork.

“I’m just so pleased to tell you it’s up and running,” said Marion Venable, executive director of the SCC Foundation.

So far, around $1,200 of SCC wine has been sold at retail value. The Uptown Wine and Gallery will be joining the Shallowford Wine Trail, a new wine trail in the area, in order to plan events.

“I think this is a real boost for our relationship with Yadkin County. We have great potential there for our students,” said Venable.

In other items on the agenda:

- Both SCC and the Yadkin Center are at 42 percent of their annual budget half-way through the year.

- The Office of State Budget Management completed a review of service areas. According to Pendergraft, there was no new news in that report. She went on to say that the college was very pleased with the report.

- The board approved the employee calendar for 2010-11. That calendar includes two days for the Independence Day holiday and no Memorial Day holiday, which is the standard from the state community college office.

- The board also approved the academic calendar for the 2010-11 school year. It follows a similar template from this year’s calendar.

- The board approved the corporate and continuing education department’s request for specific fees. Those fees are charged to all students taking certain classes in order to offset some of the college’s costs.

Contact Morgan Wall at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.