A CLOSER LOOK — Rachel Clampitt, a West Liberty education major; and other mentors in the West Virginia University Extension Service’s Energy Express summer reading program show its young participants the many vegetables growing in the community garden at Brooke Middle School. - Warren Scott

WELLSBURG — Many Brooke County students recently spent several weeks back in school but not because they needed to make up a class they had failed.

These pupils in grades 1-6 spent mornings playing games, creating an assortment of projects and hearing and reading a variety of stories as participants in the Energy Express summer reading program.

The free, voluntary program is presented through a partnership between the West Virginia University Extension Service and AmeriCorps Volunteers in Service to America.

Also involved is the Brooke County Board of Education, which provides free breakfasts and lunches for the children as well as use of Brooke Middle School.

It is one of many held by the WVU Extension Service throughout the state, including one held at Weirton Elementary for Hancock County pupils.

Each week the children hear stories and engage in activities centered around a specific theme, from Myself and My Family to My Community and Making the World a Better Place.

The children may be assigned to write or draw pictures expressing their particular interests or use various materials, many of them donated by the public, to recreate characters or settings from the stories.

Rachel Clampitt, a West Liberty University education major serving as one of the pupils’ mentors, said during the Home segment, the youth were taught that homes can be in many forms.

She noted that to demonstrate that point, the children were directed to create log houses with popsicle sticks, design boathouses whose fortitude they tested by floating them on water, and apartment buildings from large cardboard boxes.

“They covered the apartments’ walls with paper used in scrapbooks,” said Clampitt.

Jason Williamson, a Brooke County schoolteacher serving as site coordinator for the program, said the children’s parents were invited to see the many creations at a recent open house.

Williamson added the adult visitors also viewed a dance routine performed by the youth to “Cotton-Eye Joe.”

He said the event also included pizza and other snacks donated by the Follansbee and Wellsburg DiCarlo’s Pizza shops, Follansbee Domino’s and DeFelice Brothers locations and Follansbee Riesbeck’s Food Store.

A physical education instructor, Williamson said he had a lot of fun in introducing the program’s mentors with the exuberant delivery of a wrestling announcer.

The mentors receive tuition assistance and a modest living stipend, but many become involved for the experience because they are preparing for careers in teaching or other fields involving children.

Clampitt said, “It’s been an interesting experience. I’m glad I’m doing it because it’s helping me to become the teacher I want to be.”

Katie Dryer, a mentor who will be entering Wilmington College this year, said, “It was definitely a learning experience. Reading to the kids was really cool. I got to see their perspective (of the stories), which I hadn’t seen before.”

One aspect of the program that wasn’t new to Dryer, whose family has a 250-acre farm in Avella, was caring for a vegetable garden outside the school planted by its 4-H club.

In addition to overseeing Energy Express participants, the mentors must engage in a community project.

This year’s project involved weeding and watering the garden, where the children were happy to find the beginnings of tomatoes, peppers, corn and pumpkins.

WVU Extension agent Jason Rine, who advised the 4-H club, said, “We planted a lot of fall crops because we wanted them to come up when the kids came back to school.”

Diane Lucero, a retired teacher serving as program assistant for Energy Express, said earlier this summer it appeared there might not have been enough mentors to offer the program, which often is less known.

But appeals through social media and other channels drew the staff needed to make it happen.

“We have two right out of high school. It’s so nice that the kids came through, and they were great kids,” Lucero said of the young students who stepped forward to lead the program.

Williamson said of Energy Express, “It’s a good program. It provides nutritious meals to kids every day. It’s good to keep them interactive and out of trouble, and it keeps them reading in the summer.”