Zachary Hunt
The Broadside
At any given time of day, Kathy McCabe has anywhere from one to ten criminal justice students in her very small office discussing upcoming events, club issues, or even just hanging out.
With 170 members and growing, the Criminal Justice Club, or the CJ club as they call themselves, is by far the largest club on the COCC campus. Every member is dedicated either to entering law enforcement or other government work.
With such a large amount of club support, director Kathy McCabe has no problem recruiting help for all the events the CJ Club covers. The club gladly opens their doors to many organizations by offering them support in any way needed.
Just a few of the events they volunteer for are the Polar Plunge, the Blood Drive, COCC’s graduation ceremony, Soldier Needs Drive, and Caring For Troops. Recently, the club even bombarded the Soles 4 Souls basket in COCC’s Library with dozens of donations from all the CJ Club members. They’re starting a Cop Movie Night, which is going to feature films all about law enforcement.
The students of the CJ Club have also started raising funds of $1,000 for next year’s Polar Plunge, the price in which McCabe put on her own head to agree to jump in the freezing winter water.
With all this community support that the CJ Club gives out, it’s no wonder they’re sometimes discouraged by COCC’s other 15 clubs’ involvement on campus.
“We’d really like to see other clubs get involved with the campus like we do. We’re here to serve our community, but it wouldn’t hurt other clubs to lend a hand every once in a while,” says the CJ Clubs community liaison, Chris March.
The problem may very well stem from COCC’s lack of information given to students about these organization’s events.
“It seems like there’s a lack of advertisement on the college’s part of what’s going on,” says CJ Club member Shinead Fletcher.
Every CJ Club member is dedicated to the support and service of the college, volunteering 20-30 hours a year to any event they’re asked to do. They often provide security for all the other club events and feel it’s the most important thing the CJ Club does.
“We just love serving the college and the community, it’s why we’ve all chosen the professions we did,” states McCabe.
The club truly does love serving the community. On Saturday, May 8th almost all of the club members joined together in front of COCC’s Library to spend an entire day out of their weekend to, “Turn the campus blue, in a good way,” explains McCabe. In National Police Week, the club saw a perfect opportunity to honor fallen police officers right here on campus. The club hopes the campus will allow the ribbons to stay around for as long as possible.
Regardless of whether other clubs decide to get as involved as the Criminal Justice Club is, McCabe and her club of community volunteers are proud to be the most respected club on campus.
For many years to come, the CJ Club plans on serving our college campus and Bend at large with a smile on their face.
You may contact Zachary Hunt at [email protected]
