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Catawba Valley Community College recently honored one its largest-yet basic law-enforcement training classes.

BLET class number 78 was honored, and several graduates were local. They included the following grads, who are now headed for police departments (PD) and sheriff’s offices (SO):

Michael Benfield (Hickory PD); Kyle Bennett (Lincolnton PD); Timothy Buchek (Hickory PD); Marcelo Castillo Manzanares (Catawba County SO); Michael Dyson (Alexander County SO); Sandra Flores-Zaragoza (Newton PD); Wyatt French (Catawba County SO); Barrett Geyer (Hickory PD); Justin Hallman (Lincolnton PD); Cole Honnila (Hickory PD); Richard Hughes (Hickory PD); Brandon Josey (Stanley PD); Willie Lane (Hickory PD); Tore Ledford (Hickory PD); Dexter Ly (Catawba PD); Sage Peyton (Lincolnton PD); Timothy Reed (Catawba County SO); Justin Rogers (Hickory PD); Vidalia Smallwood (Lincolnton PD); Alyssa Sronce (Lincolnton PD); Caleb Travis (Catawba County SO); Sharon Vasquez Santos (Conover PD); and Anna Wike (Newton PD).

Clyde Deal, the chief of security and law-enforcement education at CVCC, extolled the grads.

“Having graduated from the CVCC basic law-enforcement program in 1985, it makes me extremely proud to see the program continue to produce well-trained, highly motivated and dedicated officers that are ready to serve the citizens,” Deal said. “This group of graduates understands that the path they have chosen is not just a job but a calling. Our communities will be better places to live and work, thanks to the dedication and effort that these graduates will continue to show every day as they arrive to work.”

The BLET course was 711 hours long. Training consisted of practical exercises, academics, physical fitness testing and a State of North Carolina-administered examination. Catawba Valley Community College and its school of community development and public services extended formal congratulations to all the graduates for their dedication to the program and commitment to serving the region.

To learn more about CVCC’s BLET program, contact Deal by e-mail or telephone respectively at [email protected] or (828) 327-7000, ext. 4573.

And for more information about Catawba Valley Community College, check out the Website at www.cvcc.edu.

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