FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Ann Bailey Berry, WVU Extension Communications
Phone: (304) 293-4221, ext. 3416; e-mail: Ann.Berry@mail.wvu.edu
To be archived after March 30, 2007
Extending a West Virginia University Extension Service literacy and nutrition program to more than 1,600 children in Greenbrier County earned a team excellence award for two local WVU Extension agents.
The WVU Extension Service Team Program Excellence Award was presented to Greenbrier County’s Kay Davis, Extension agent and assistant professor, and Linda Simmons, Extension agent and associate professor.
The two were among exemplary faculty and staff recognized at an awards ceremony held recently at WVU Jackson’s Mill State 4-H Camp, Weston.
Working as a team, Davis and Simmons has increased support for and the number of children enrolled in Energy Express, a six-week nutrition and reading program that maintains or improves children’s reading skills during the summer.
Energy Express, a nationally recognized award-winning program, was developed by West Virginia University Extension Service. Local supporters in each county help fund their communities’ reading sites by providing 30 percent of their expenses.
To acquire part of their local match for their Energy Express sites, the Greenbrier team secured West Virginia Reads grants from the West Virginia State Department of Education and budget digest funds from their local legislative members.
In 2006, they secured more than $60,000 for Greenbrier County Energy Express.
Through the Greenbrier team’s leadership, Energy Express in Greenbrier County has grown from two program sites in 2001 to seven sites in 2006. That growth increased the team’s extensive tasks from recruiting and training staff and to purchasing teaching supplies.
The program has flourished—nurturing more than 1,600 Greenbrier elementary youths, 70 percent of whom were limited-resource children who were eligible for their schools’ free and reduced-price meals program.
Davis and Simmons are among community-based WVU Extension faculty who work on local issues with families, businesses and organizations through offices in each of the state’s 55 counties.
WVU-ES’s four major program areas are 4-H Youth Development; Families and Health; Agriculture and Natural Resources; and Community, Economic and Workforce Development.
Information about WVU-ES programs is available on the Web (www.ext.wvu.edu).
The WVU Greenbrier County Extension office is located at 1046 Maplewood Ave., Fairlea.
—WVU-ES—
fsm 11/06
Last modified
December 13, 2006
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