Energy Express in Paw Paw is back

Energy Express returned to Paw Paw Schools this summer after a three-year absence. The six-week reading enrichment and nutrition program began June 22 and ends Friday, August 6.

Morgan County Extension Agent Denis Scott and Paw Paw School Energy Express site coordinator Sharon Munson were excited that the program was back in Paw Paw. It is also taking place at Widmyer Elementary.
Energy Express features theme-centered reading activities, art, writing, recreation and drama in small group settings. AmeriCorps college student mentors work with the children. They also share free family-style breakfasts and lunches.

Energy Express is supported by partners that include the Morgan County Extension Office and Morgan County Schools.

Family week
Energy Express has weekly themes of myself, family, friends, homeplace, community and making my world a better place.

Week two was family week. Students in Paw Paw were painting family portraits, creating family trees, writing books about their families and making invitations for a Family Night activity.

This week’s take-home books were The Hello Goodbye Window by Norton Juster for younger students and I Wanna Iquana by Karen Kaufman Orloff for older kids.

Full enrollment
In Paw Paw, enrollment is full with 32 students. Four AmeriCorps mentors each have eight students, Munson said.

They’ve had around 15 volunteers so far who have mostly been reading to the children, said community coordinator Michael Bradford.

Mentors
AmeriCorps mentors had to be college students or college-bound, said mentor Amanda Hoover. It was the first year at Energy Express for all four mentors.

Hoover’s group was involved in one-on-one reading. She said that the kids really liked doing the art projects and last week’s take-home book Diary of a Wimpy Kid. She was surprised how excited kids were to come to the program.

T.J. Holliday and his students were drawing pictures of their future families. Holliday liked reading with the kids and using different accents while he read to them.

Lauren Patrick’s group had made family mobiles and traced their hands and drawn family members on each finger. Patrick enjoyed seeing kids’ different interpretations of her instructions and the creative products they made.
Luke Badley said he enjoyed opportunities to read aloud and do writing with the children. His kids were writing in journals they made. They had created whirligigs inspired by Cynthia Rylant’s book Missing May and had made pet pictures.

Community service
As community service, Paw Paw AmeriCorps mentors moved books and shelves at the Paw Paw Public Library while new carpeting was being installed. They would be repainting parking lines in the Paw Paw Senior Center parking lot, Munson said.

The mentors were also organizing a drive for donated snacks for children to take home for weekends since nutrition is a big part of the Energy Express program, Hoover said.

Open house
Paw Paw Energy Express is having an open house Family Night at Paw Paw Schools on Thursday, July 22 from 5-7 p.m. during community week. There will be ice cream and art activities including sand art made from salt colored with sidewalk chalk, Munson said.

It was Munson’s first time as a site coordinator, but she was a two-year alumnus of the program. She said she used the kids as a barometer.
“If they’re having fun, I’m doing a good job,” she said.

Munson said she had a good group of mentors that worked closely together. Each brought a different point of view to the team.

They would continue former Energy Express coordinator Doc Holliday’s Morgan County Dessert Social for the Paw Paw and Widmyer mentors. It gives mentors a chance to network and share some ideas, she said.

Munson said she would love to have more adult volunteers help out and read to kids. Bradford had found teen volunteers.

Supplies still needed
Found object supplies for activities are needed for both the Widmyer and Paw Paw Energy Express sites.

Requested items include foam egg cartons, paper bags (all sizes), paper plates, paper towel or toilet paper tubes, empty cereal, cracker or shoe boxes, picture magazines, string, yarn, plastic cottage cheese or yogurt containers, foam peanuts or shredded paper packing material and textured fabrics.