Summer education, Five-week Energy Express program promotes literacy, reading, critical thinking

Metheny said Energy Express features family-style breakfast, as well as lunch, for students in grades K-5. The idea, as she put it, is for the mentors and community volunteers to work with small groups of students to promote literacy, reading, comprehension as well as critical thinking skills.

“I did it for two years as a mentor and a community coordinator over five years ago and then I came back this year,” Matheny said.

Energy Express is an award-winning summer reading and nutrition program for lower-income communities. According to Matheny, kids come and enjoy a lot of fun activities and receive a lot of attention in one-on-one reading to help with learning retention over the summer break.

“I love it because it’s really creative based, so they learn in ways that are fun to them and they get a lot more out of it than they could ever imagine,” she said. “I feel it carries into adulthood because they’re really connecting with a creative side that they’re not allowed to connect with in school.”

Matheny told the Preston News & Journal about some of the techniques employed by Energy Express in how children are surrounded at all times by a variety of good books — a “print rich environment.

“We do have a print-rich environment, and it allows them to be exposed to reading so they don’t experience the summer slide, which is a loss in the learning that they experience during the school year,” she said.

At the time of this interview, the Energy Express program was in its third week. As part of the five-week program each week has a theme around which books and activities are guided.

“It is Friends Week, and then next week (July 18-22) we have Community and Home Place combined,” she added. “And so next week will be our Community Wellness Bash and we’ll be inviting everyone from the entire community to come and experience wellness activities that are fun. And there will be a clothing giveaway and a book giveaway, so right now we’re still collecting donations for that and that’s going to tie into our Community Week.”

Children enrolled in Energy Express are treated to two meals served every day where children sit with their Americorps mentors and eat a family-style meal. Matheny credits this environment as a key factor in promoting growth and confidence within the children.

“I see them gaining a lot of social interaction skills and manners,” she explained. “I can see their confidence grow a whole lot just from family, style meals.”

Ashley Matheny believes in the value of the program and the important service it offers to our community’s children in giving them opportunities to be creative and retain what they’ve learned over the school year.

“There are children who definitely need to be here for the nutrition and the two free meals per day who would not have as much exposure to a print-rich environment during the summer and would not have the interaction with the other children during the summer, so I think it’s not only beneficial educationally but socially in just every way pretty much,” she concluded.

Funding for After School Explorers a 21st Century Community Learning Center is provided wholly or in part by a grant from the United States Department of Education under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Title IV Part B, with grant administration carried out by the West Virginia Department of Education.

All Energy Express sites throughout the county are still accepting students. For more information, call Susie A. Huggins 304-288-5244.