Ten years after the establishment of a nursing program at Paul D. Camp Community College, those involved in the program’s birth, those involved in its nurturing and those involved in watching it mature got together last Friday, along with graduates, faculty members and other supporters, to celebrate the success of their efforts.

The program has been wildly successful, and that success has been due in large part to the hard work and dedication of a group of people who had a dream and a vision of what it could be and never stopped pressing for the things that were necessary to make the dreams and visions become real.

Dr. Candace Rogers, the program’s first dean, was among the program’s founders, its most tireless supporters and its most deserving honorees during the program Friday in Suffolk. When Rogers joined the college in 2004, she brought two decades of experience, both as a nurse and administrator. In her 10 years there, the nursing syllabus grew to include practical nursing and several allied health programs. She retired in July.

The foundation Rogers laid for the nursing program is one that has encouraged and will continue to support healthy growth and expansion. In doing so, she was aided by PDCCC President Emeritus Doug Boyce, along with other individuals and a short but important list of philanthropic organizations that funded the establishment of the program, as well as its expansions through the years.

Many lives have been directly improved by the PDCCC nursing program, and countless lives have been indirectly touched by the students who have graduated from it. A 10-year anniversary celebration was an absolutely appropriate venue at which to honor the people and organizations that made it possible for this program to have made such a difference in Western Tidewater. We congratulate PDCCC and its honorees.