Single Moms' College
The Camden County College Foundation has begun a new partnership that will provide low-income single mothers who attend CCC with money to purchase books for their courses.
Officials of the Lauren Rose Albert Foundation recently signed an agreement with the college to provide $5,000 per year toward student textbook purchases. These monies will be distributed to qualified students as 10 awards of $250 each semester.
Lauren Rose Albert, a 40-year-old mother of three, was killed in an automobile accident in Morocco in 1999. The Cherry Hill-based organization named in her honor was begun so that her family and friends could keep her generous and spirited memory alive through community service. The Lauren Rose Albert Foundation strives to help others build better lives so that they may realize their potential and make their own contributions to society.
Initiatives enacted by the foundation aim to provide "a safety net for women in need." These include "Mothers Matter" gift baskets for women's shelter residents, a road-safety program, scholarships to graduating high school seniors and the college-assistance book fund that will help CCC students starting in Spring 2004.
According to Albert's mother, Susan Rose, women struggling to work a low-income job, raise children and attend school often find that "purchasing course-related books and materials means a choice between being prepared for class or giving up a household necessity." No one trying to improve her and her children's lives, Rose said, should have to make such a choice.
College president Dr. Phyllis Della Vecchia agreed "Gifts like this," Della Vecchia said, "mean so much."#
