By David Riedell

Students at Trinity Academy of Raleigh have been waiting for this for years. Their school, which the students jokingly call a trailer park, is finally constructing its first permanent building on its Baileywick Road campus.

The school started construction on a multi-purpose gymnasium and fine arts center in early October. The gym is scheduled to be completed by April 1. All classes at Trinity are held in trailers.

“It's the most significant thing that has happened at Trinity since moving to the Baileywick campus in 2005,” said Dr. Robert Littlejohn, head of school. “It represents the first step in construction of a nine-building, $30 million campus on our 38 acres.”

The gym, Littlejohn said, is the first of several athletic projects that will include the construction of a new playground, a six tennis court complex and a paved quarter-mile track. The estimated total cost for these four projects is about $2.3 million.

Littlejohn said the small private, Christian school is taking a pay-as-you-go approach to avoid falling into debt. Construction on the gymnasium did not start until the school had raised enough funds to pay for it, which took about a year and a half.

While visiting the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center, the firefighters learned of the devestating consequences fire victims face.

In Rutherford County, unemployment has skyrocketed in the past two years creating a huge need for federal nutrition assistance and stimulating an increase in childhood poverty. 

According to Rutherford County Food and Nutrition Services, more than 12 thousand people received SNAP benefits or food stamps in 2009, an increase of 4,000 since 2007.

SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the current name of the program that helps impoverished people buy groceries.

“Our [rates] have increased drastically over the past year,” said Aubrey Epley, Department of Social Services Food and Nutrition Services Supervisor.