Opinion: Do you know all of CC’s benefits

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been highly engaged, using my sleuth-like (not sloth-like) capabilities to discover and evaluate interesting new opportunities for the lucky citizens of Donley County. I’m talking gem-like opportunities, as in the Pearl of the Panhandle, Clarendon College. In case you haven’t noticed, Clarendon College is currently the single largest driver of economic and cultural growth in Beautiful Downtown Donley County. I’ve discovered that there are additional benefits offered by CC that I was unaware of.

Consider, for example, the Clarendon College cafeteria. It is not solely for the use of the students and staff of CC, it is also available to us, the general public, provided of course that we have money. However, it does not require a large amount of money; say $4 for breakfast, and a little less than $7 for lunch and dinner. Breakfast and Sunday Brunch are buffet style, meaning you can go back for seconds as often as you wish, within reason – lest you inadvertently add too many dimples to your backside.

Two weeks ago, I entered the cafeteria stealth-like, to check out the food, which I had heard from multiple sources was very good. I can report that not only is it good, it is plentiful, and it is presented in a pleasing manner. Furthermore, the people – folks like Katrina, Mandy, Linda, Beth, and Cissy – serve it with style and grace – all decked out with fetching smiles.

This past Sunday, I went back to check out the Sunday Brunch, not as covertly – mainly because I knew many of the Sunday patrons. Yet again, the food was excellent, including a salad bar with fresh ingredients. As usual, seconds and more seconds were available, depending upon how many dimples you can tolerate.

While dining leisurely on the tasty fare, I took the liberty to chat, as I’m prone to do, with a few of the patrons, both students and local citizens. When asked why they choose to eat at the college, one of my friends replied that the food is good, the facility is clean with a nice ambience, and the price is right. Also important, she added, the company was excellent. It seems that our more experienced citizens enjoy being around the college students, watching the festivities as the students interact while eating.

The Sunday crowd was about 2/3 college students to 1/3 local citizens – a nice mix. The morning breakfast crowd was mostly college students and staff, with a few locals scattered about for flavor. The early morning dining was considerably less frisky than the lunch and dinner crowds.

After eating, as you exit the cafeteria if you proceed due west, you will come to a running track, which is also handy for walking off those pesky dimples. I field tested the track and it worked just fine, for a while anyway. After a few trips around the oval, it seemed like the grade of the track elevated with each lap thereafter and I soon felt like I was running uphill.

Located due north of the cafeteria is the CC library, also open to the public. If you have a local library card you may also use the college library, including the computer room. I had the opportunity to chat with two of the librarians, Pamela Reed and Annis Stavenhaven, as they guided me on a brief tour of the library, which is spacious, clean, and well maintained.

The library offers a veritable cornucopia of knowledge and wisdom, requiring only a modest investment of time and focus to reap an invaluable abundance of information. The library includes a great room, chock full of computers for online study and browsing.

Next door, on the other side of a nice plate glass wall, is the magazine reading room, filled with reading material for every taste, even including tea party types. The remainder of the floor space is used to display a fair assortment of books, covering pretty much every subject known to man. Then again, I guess if there was a subject unknown to man, there probably wouldn’t be many books written about it.

The library hours are fairly generous, closing each evening at 10 p.m., excepting Wednesdays, when it closes at 9 p.m. The main thing I’ve heard from the students I’ve talked with is that they wish there were more things to do locally. If the students don’t have adequate leisure time activities, perhaps they ought to at least be able to spend quality time in the library edifying their brains. Why not have the library open 12 hours a day, seven days a week, like they were when I was a university student?

Clarendon College not only adds to our economic bounty, it also provides us with unique opportunities to learn. The college offers us many opportunities to improve and enrich our lives; with good food, enhanced learning activities, exciting sports and rodeo events. I want to encourage everyone to spend a little time getting better acquainted with Clarendon College. Let’s all get to know our college students better by reaching out to them and participating in more activities. It’s great fun!