MOOREFIELD, W.Va. – Jeff Fraley, director of nursing education for Voiture 1623 of the Forty & Eight (40 & 8) Veterans Organization, presented $500 scholarships to four nursing students at Eastern West Virginia Community and Technical College on Tuesday, Sept. 27.
Receiving scholarships were nursing students Michelle Adkins of Pendleton County, Jodee Crites of Grant County, Crystal Goodwater of Hampshire County, and Whitney Simon of Hardy County.
Fraley congratulated the group for their hard work and encouraged them to keep up their efforts.
Voiture 1623 of the 40 & 8, based in Moorefield, has been a longtime advocate and supporter of Eastern’s nursing students. Members of the 40 & 8 hold several fundraising events each year to help support their nursing scholarship program. As recently as the end of September, Fraley and other members were selling ham sandwiches and hot dogs in Moorefield during Heritage Weekend to raise funds to support student scholarships.
About the 40 & 8
La Société des Quarante Hommes et Huit Chevaux (The Society of Forty Men and Eight Horses) membership is by invitation, and open only to honorably discharged veterans and honorably serving members of the U.S. Armed Forces. The society was created in 1920 in the wake of World War I, and the name comes from the French railway boxcars that carried most of the soldiers to the front lines. The boxcars featured a sign indicating the boxcar’s capacity: 40 men/8 horses. The national organization’s mission to support nursing education began in 1955.
About Eastern’s Nursing Program
The nursing program at Eastern dates back to 2006 when Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College launched a nursing program division in Moorefield. With Southern’s permission, Eastern later adopted the program’s curriculum and earned independent program accreditation from the WV Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses. The two-year RN program, which admits new students every other year, is also accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN). For more information, visit https://easternwv.edu/academics/nursing-program/.