Sampson Community College reached a milestone on Wednesday, as the long-awaited new Activity Center officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The 10,000-square-foot addition is a multipurpose, flexible space for large-scale training in occupational and public safety programs and for hosting meetings and lectures for large groups.
“The Sampson Early College High School, located on the campus, now has space for indoor physical education or student activities, and Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET) and Emergency Medical Services have dedicated training space,” Dean of Advancement and the Executive Director of the SCC Foundation Lisa Turlington said. “The college can hold large recruitment events, community interest meetings, program graduations, large seminar or lecture offerings, or state, regional or system conferences on campus.”
College President Dr. Bill Starling did the actual cutting with the ceremonial scissors, and was the first to speak at the event, which was attended by local government officials, numerous college employees and representatives of the USDA, which provided the funding to help realize the new center.
“Truthfully, we don’t have many opportunities to celebrate facility expansion here on campus,” Starling said at the start of the ceremony.
“This project was made possible through congressionally directed spending from the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2022, and it was sponsored by Congressman [Richard] Rouzer and Senators [Richard] Burr and [Thom] Tillis,” he explained. “We actually received funding in 2023.”
Starling shared that the project was the “longest capital project in the history of Sampson Community College.” The addition was actually part of the original plans for the technology building in 1998. The funding was not available then, so the project was abandoned for more than 10 years. Turlington then made it her mission to bring the project to reality, starting in 2020, he said.
“We represented this to our funding partners as a multipurpose space, and that is our intention for it,” Starling said.
Robert Hosford, state director for the USDA Rural Development, also spoke at the ceremony, thanking the college staff who helped make the project happen. “Keeping the rural parts of our country in the forefront is so great, and so much appreciated,” he said. “We’re all about the partnerships, as we move forward to the future, the next phase, whatever it is, we are here for it.”
Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development with the USDA, Neal Robbins, also spoke during the ceremony, saying that one of his first public speaking engagements was in a similar multipurpose facility at Seagrove Elementary School in Randolph County. “I’m a product of a place like this,” he reminisced. “These types of facilities are durable. They take a long time to come by, but they last a long time and they do great work for the community, not just for students on this canvas, not just the people that live in this area, they provide a snapshot for people that come from all over. You’re not too far from the interstate, and you’re not too far from Raleigh, so I anticipate we’re gonna see a lot of folks from Murphy to Manteo, and maybe from sea to shining sea, that come to the facility over the next 40 or 50 years.”
Robbins touted the positive effects that SCC can have on the local economy, by providing a skilled workforce for industry to locate in the county.
SCC Board of Trustees Larinda Haight rounded out the ceremony speakers, calling the new facility “a huge opportunity for not only Sampson Community College students, but for public and community members as well.”
“The one thing that I would say is this is more than bricks and mortar,” she added. “This is the belief in the power of education, community and opportunity. This is here because people believed that they could work hard and find the money to provide it.”
Haight shared that she has been on the college’s board for 12-13 years, and the Activity Center has been talked about since day one.
The college will partner with NC Ag Extension to host the 2026 Ag Day at the new center in March.