PILOT MOUNTAIN — Community members have embraced the opening of the Pilot Mountain Center for Learning, Education and Retraining, but one local organization has taken up the call to ensure it becomes a success.

The Pilot Mountain Woman’s Club decided at its final meeting of the year to make a donation to cover the tuition costs for the 10 students making up the first Certified Nursing Assistant class at the center.

The Employment Securities Commission Workforce Investment Act program has been covering the tuition costs for a number of people seeking retraining, particularly for dislocated workers. However, the commission’s funding has been frozen indefinitely due to budget constraints, meaning those who would normally receive tuition wavers are having to come up with the money themselves.

“Karen McBennett brought to our attention they had lost the funding for the program,” said Janie Sheppard, treasurer for the Woman’s Club. “We want to see the Pilot Center grow so we just felt like that’s where we needed to put our money.”

The Woman’s Club is known for raising money and then putting all of it back into the community in order to help others. According to Sheppard, the fact that the program is taking place in Pilot Mountain was a big selling point for deciding to donate funds in the form of a scholarship through the Surry Community College Foundation.

“We’re thrilled it’s here. It’s a beautiful facility and we want it to succeed. It’s a great asset to Pilot Mountain,” said Sheppard. “Within five minutes (the decision to donate money there) was a done deal.”

SCC and the Pilot CLEAR facility were excited to see a local organization step up and take ownership in the project in order to allow it to better serve the community.

“It’s invaluable. The way we support our students is through community contributions,” said Marion Venable, director of the SCC Foundation. “It’s great we have an organization willing to step up and help corporate and continuing education. Those are people we depend on on a daily basis to be servants to the community.”

According to Venable, most scholarships coming through the foundation are earmarked for curriculum programs. The CNA program at the Pilot Center, however, is run through corporate and continuing education along with other licensure courses such as Basic Law Enforcement Training and Emergency Medical Technician training.

“They want to support this localized effort,” said Venable. “So many people are trying to retool and are looking at jobs that are in demand. That just adds value to this gift. This is a very important step for us because of the population that it will serve.”

According to Greg Smith, the director of the Pilot Center, there are already 10 potential students for the first class who have come through the JobsNOW program at the college which trains dislocated workers for one of 12 different career paths in six months. The first class will be able to start training as soon as the training lab is certified by the state, which should happen soon.

Smith said that if the WIA tuition funding is restored before the first class begins, the donation from the Woman’s Club will be used to assist the next class of students who do not qualify for assistance. He said the demand for the program is so high the funds likely will be used quickly. There is a list for those interested in taking part in the CNA program at the Pilot Center. However, Smith said this is not a waiting list, rather it is a notification list to let people know when schedules are set and when they need to register.

The Woman’s Club hopes that other organizations will be motivated to do the same in order to help out the community. According to Venable, Pilot Mountain has a history of supporting corporate and continuing education students at the college as the Surry Stokes American Legion made a donation to the program several years ago.

The Pilot Mountain Woman’s Club was started in 1963 and has 35 members at present. The acting president of the club is Marie Needham. The Pilot Center is located on Main Street in the former Amos and Smith building. It was funded by a GoldenLEAF grant and will be the host to many corporate and continuing education programs as well as GED and English as a Second Language programs among others. There will also be a few curriculum courses offered there starting this fall.

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