A great day at the College of the Desert

Yesterday I was invited to attend the Grand Opening and reception for the new Student Services Center, named for Donald and Peggy Cravens, on the College of the Desert campus in Palm Desert, California.
 
It was a great event with all the prominent Federal, State and local dignitaries in attendance, as well as school representatives and the community at large, the building a culmination of 2 years worth of fundraising and construction efforts by the college and numerous donors, prominent among them, the Cravens, who provided $3.5 million for the new building which bears their name.  If their names sound familiar to you Donald Cravens is the world reknown photo-journalist who took some of Time-Life's most memorable images, including one of Rosa Parks during the time of the Montgomery bus boycott and the Civil Rights era, while Peggy Cravens, is a former child singing and stage star. She has received numerous awards throughout the years in the Coachella Valley for her fundraising efforts for a number of causes and organizations.  Some of Mr. Cravens many works are on display in the new Student Services Center.
 
 As I was sitting there I thought back to articles and documents that I had read about the college, and discussions with "old timers", circa 1970, of how the college began on a 160 acre site in 1958, and how this site, along with the desert community as a whole, has increased exponentially over the decades.  Construction of the college was a major enterprise for the college district, the burgeoning community of Palm Desert and for the Coachella Valley as a whole in 1958.  It would be another decade plus until the City of Palm Desert would even be officially incorporated. 
 
The college now serves a student population of over 12,000 yearly and boasts career tracks in 75 areas. It also has a very interesting arrangement for its' library needs...a first of its kind in the State of California and unique in the nation whereby a college library is shared with a city, Palm Desert, and a county, Riverside.  How's that for joint-use!  As for unique collections housed on the college side, Winston Churchill and Desert collections are available to view for the public, while the Riverside County Library System side of the building has a large collection of fiction/nonfiction works and programming to draw from and an extensive Local History collection accessible to the public.
 
As for the nine cities comprising the Coachella Valley it now has a population nearing 300,00 and will most likely exceed that with the new census.   
 
Have a great week,
 
Sherry