Good gossip

Don’t be afraid to spread the word about Energy Express

By John Blankenship

Gossip in the community isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Not when it’s about Energy Express, a six-week summer program sponsored by AmeriCorps, which promotes the school success of children living in rural communities across West Virginia.

And there’s been lots of positive talk in the community recently about the summer program going on at Cranberry-Prosperity Elementary School in Beckley.

“Energy Express focuses on reading, writing, arts, crafts, and nutrition,” explained Patricia Smith, site supervisor for the program at the elementary school. “We have had outstanding support from parents who expressed high interest from the beginning. Our 40 student slots filled up quickly, with 16 children remaining on the waiting list.”

Energy Express provides summer learning experiences focused on reading, serves two nutritious, family-style meals each day, engages college students in service through AmeriCorps, and develops strong partnerships involving parents, schools, communities and state agencies and organizations. The program was started by West Virginia University professor Ruth Ann Phillips.

Across the Mountain State, children’s reading was maintained or increased, with the average child gaining five months in broad reading achievement, observed Smith, noting that more than 80,000 volunteers were contributed statewide.

“This is a remarkable summer program,” Smith said. “Imagine that there are some 4,400 volunteers at Energy Express sites around the state. Consider that some 182,200 nutritious meals are being served while children are receiving almost 20,000 take-home books. I think that’s pretty impressive.”

Smith also pointed out that college students, the majority of whom attend West Virginia colleges and universities, are recruited and trained to serve as mentors at the school sites.

“Community members and college students serve as volunteer coordinators and recruit, train, manage and recognize volunteers,” she added. “These AmeriCorps members and VISTAs are committed to helping communities meet the education needs of children through service while fulfilling additional community service commitments and earning educational credit.”

Smith said the Energy Express program in the state has expanded considerably since it began in 1994. “It has grown from two sites in two counties with 85 children and 13 college student mentors to approximately 90 sites in about 40 counties with more than 3,100 children and nearly 500 AmeriCorps members and volunteers.”

Smith explained that members serving as mentors and children share breakfast and lunch served family-style. “These nutritious meals become important learning experiences as children learn to make choices, assume responsibility, cooperate and participate in group discussions,” Smith said.

She said local school systems and non-profit agencies serve as Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) sponsors with contracts through the West Virginia Department of Education’s Office of Child Nutrition. Funding for the SFSP comes from the United States Department of Agriculture.

This is how the summer program works:

n Each day, small groups of eight children who are entering first through sixth grades work with AmeriCorps members serving as mentors.

n Using a place-based curriculum that encourages reading, mentors guide the children through enriching experiences that make reading meaningful in their lives — creating books, reading aloud, writing and performing plays, reading silently, journaling, reading one-on-one with others, and exploring creative and exciting art activities.

n Weekly themes of “myself,” “family,” “home-place,” “community,” and “ideal world” guide the development of a “print-rich” environment. Related activities encourage children to appreciate themselves, their personal experiences, and their place in the world. Each week every child receives a free take-home book, related to the theme, to keep.

n Mentors work with their groups to develop community service projects the children complete. They create books to donate to libraries, read at nursing homes and hospitals, and write and record public service announcements — learning the value of service while making real contributions to the improvement of their schools and communities.

For these and other reasons, Smith sees the Energy Express summer program as a benefit to the community, especially to elementary school-age children.

“One of the problems with children being out of school for nearly three months in summer is that many of them lose academic skills,” Smith explained. “And without school breakfast and lunch, many children lose nutritional well-being.

“At the same time, many children during summer have few structured learning opportunities. In fact, summer learning and nutritional losses are greater for children living in rural communities.”

She added, “Children living in rural and needs-based communities often fall behind during the summer months, starting each school year behind where they were the previous spring. Successive summers of limited learning opportunities may cause children to fall below grade level by the end of elementary school — putting them farther behind their more-privileged peers.”

The staff at Cranberry-Prosperity Elementary this summer includes Smith, the site supervisor, and two volunteer coordinators: Debbie Davis and Vicky Barnes.

There are five AmeriCorps volunteers who work directly with the children in their reading activities. They are Jessie Mokee, Lindsey Jones, Bethany Guyaux, Courtney Strang and Tiffiny Jack, all of whom are enrolled as college students pursuing degrees in education.

“They bring to their work a positive attitude and a spark of enthusiasm,” Smith said of the volunteers.

Support services at the school are provided by cook Debbie Harrison and custodian Robert Wilson.

Parents and community volunteers, meanwhile, are recruited to help with the daily activities. According to Smith, a second-grade teacher at the school, “The outpouring of support from the community has been phenomenal. The volunteers are given the opportunity to read with the children or share their specific skills in arts and crafts.”

Energy Express is offered each summer at 90 different sites in counties across West Virginia. Raleigh County’s experience dates back to 1996, when the original grant application was drafted the late Dwayne McGrady, a former WVU Extension agent, and George McMurray, a Bradley Elementary School counselor.

Major funding for Energy Express comes from the West Virginia University Extension Service, West Virginia Commission for National and Community Service, the summer food service program through the West Virginia Department of Education and the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts.

The Raleigh County Board of Education, Raleigh County Food Service and Raleigh County Schools Transportation are local partners.

E-mail: jabbb@suddenlink.net