Jacob Toney working on an art activity
By Leslie Garrett
Week two of the AmeriCorps award-winning state program, Energy Express, has come and gone. “It was another great week” said Calhoun County Site Supervisor Jacob McCumbers.
The theme this week was “family.” This theme gave children the opportunity to celebrate the importance of family and be accepting of the differences among families. They also learned that family can be much more than a group of individuals who are related. Some statements children used to describe family were “people who love each other,” “people who help us,” “people working together as a team.”
During “family” week children were presented with books that focus on family. Some of the books utilized during the week included: “A Chair for My Mother,” “Aunt Flossies Hats,” “Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs” and the two take home books “Toney Baloney” and “The Relatives Came”.
Children engaged in several art, drama and recreational activities as well. Some of the week’s art activities included painting family portraits, painting family dinners and making paper hats. The children wrote about their families, family vacations and times when they had a fight with someone in their family and how they overcame that hurdle. Children also acted out several books they had read throughout the week.
Jayden Hickman reading a book during one-on-one reading time
Kameryn Toney and Volunteer Casey Hall during one-one-one reading
Again, we were fortunate to have several volunteers last week. Volunteers included Mikayla Toney, Nicholas Smith, Taylor Williams, Alexis Williams, Katie Smith, Aaron Renick and many more! The volunteers served a total of 162.75 hours last week. Volunteers help with meal setup, reading, writing, drama, art and recreation activities. If you are interested in volunteering for Energy Express please contact Community Coordinator, Leslie Garrett or Site Supervisor Jacob McCumbers at 304-354-6148 ext 12.
In addition to celebrating “family” this past week the site team members were busy planning upcoming activities. The site team will be holding a community service project on Saturday July 14th at 3 p.m. at the Wayne Underwood Field.
The community service project is “Corn Hole for Cans”. A corn hole tournament will be held and canned food items will be collected as the entry fee into the tournament, along with a cook-out, which the food can be bought with canned food.
The children at Energy Express are also collecting pop tabs to send to hospitals to help provide medical care for children in need. Energy Express will hold their annual open-house on Wednesday July 18th at 10am. The open house will be open to the public and everyone is encouraged to attend! We are looking forward to another productive week at Energy Express as we celebrate “friends.”
| 
