HAMPTON — The award-winning Ballroom Dance Team at Virginia Peninsula Community College (VPCC) received a generous surprise from the VPCC president of matched donation money at this year’s school kick-off event.
The annual kickoff to the academic year was held at Liberty Live Church and featured a performance by the dance team. To show her support for the group, Dr. Towuanna Porter Brannon, the president of Virginia Peninsula Community College, announced she would match any donations made to the team for the rest of the day.
“We were overwhelmed,” said Pam Roberts of the college’s business office and the club’s adviser. Roberts said was aware that Brannon was going to encourage those in attendance to donate to the team, but was unaware the president was going to match those donations.
The club receives money from the Student Activities fund, but that doesn’t cover all costs incurred by team members. The team also took a rather hard blow with COVID-19 making it extremely difficult for members to gather and practice. When the club was able to begin meeting again, however, it was able to find new members and everyone was able to get back to what they love.
Despite often finding itself the only community college participating in national
competitions, VPCC often brings home awards. The team earned 22 awards in the spring of 2022 in its first competition since the fall of 2019 due to the pandemic. Among those were six first-place finishes.
Brannon will be present a check for more than $6,000 to the team, its coaches and advisers on Monday, Sept. 12, at 6 p.m. at Wythe Hall on the College’s Hampton campus.
