Converting Excel "general" date into DateTime(Sql)

Hi,

 I have an odd request....

I am importing data from an excel spreadsheet to a sql db. Inside the excel spreadsheet, I have a column with dates in it, I need these dates to be imported as text to the sql DB field(which is a varchar datatype).

 

The problem is, at the moment, if I insert a date 2006/08/30 it displays it like this in the sql DB: 38959

Is there a way this can be converted back to the date? even possibly before it is stored in the sql DB ?

I am currently bulk copying the excel data to sql DB. The code im using is below: Thank you for any help/assistance

Dim excelConnectionString As String = < ...