Lacy Cattledge, 9, learned to make sushi this month. She also learned to make candy sushi, out of Fruit Roll-Ups and Twinkies.
“I prefer the candy,” she said. “It tastes good.”
Cattledge was one of 260 at-risk students in the Starkville School District who participated in this year”s month-long Summer Enrichment Camp, which took place at Armstrong Middle School here. It came to a close on Friday.
The camp is one element of the school district”s ASSETS program. The acronym stands for After-School & Summer Equals Total Success.
The Starkville School District has funded the camp by way of the four-year 21st Century Community Learning Grant it received from the Mississippi Department of Education in 2006. The camp is already looking for sources of funding for next year.
Camp Director Jim Gassaway said he wants to make sure it continues, so as to prevent students from dropping out and encourage them to graduate.
“Our community needs to buy into this program in order to keep it going,” he said.
Henderson Intermediate School Principal Timothy Bourne also believes in the power of the program.
“I think we need to keep on doing it forever,” he said.
Some of the campers focused on single subjects like drama and engineering every weekday for four weeks. Others experienced a more diversified summer education, which included paper airplane construction and candy sushi creation (wrap a Fruit Roll-Up around a Twinkie), among other things. Each week, the campers focused on a different subject: fine arts, technology, math and science, and culture.
The participating students” parents were given the opportunity to decide what their children would do at the camp. On Friday, parents came to Armstrong to see the results of their children”s experiences, when exhibits were on display and the kids staged an exposition featuring dances, drum performances, Tae Kwon Do demonstrations and a one-act play.
And seven campers in red and black shirts danced to “Bad,” by Michael Jackson. Each camper wore a red or black glove. The segment was not planned to honor the late pop legend; it was just one of many choreographed dance performances. Nevertheless, the crowd whistled and screamed extra-loud.
LeJoyious Vaughn, a rising seventh grader, was one of the scores of students who gathered in the middle of the school”s gym to show off the Tae Kwon Do skills they”d learned.
Of all the games and lessons she played and lessons she learned, LeJoyious, whose parents are Theresa Baker and Robert Vaughn, said she enjoyed the Tae Kwon Do most, because she could use it to defend herself, “in case somebody tries to rob me.”
What would she do if such a situation were to arise?
“I”d do the round-off kick,” she said before the exposition. She swung her right foot in a circle in front of herself. “Then they”ll fall to the ground. … Then I”ll take my purse and run.”
Victoria Fair got her first exposure to drama through the camp, studying it every day for four weeks in preparation for Friday”s performance of “The Crowded House,” a 10-minute play set in rural Tennessee.
“I love it,” said Victoria Fair, a rising fourth grader, referring to drama. She said she played “a chickadee, a little chicken,” in the play.
Victoria, whose parents are Sonja and Larry Fair, said she would be interested in studying drama as she gets older and even in becoming an actress.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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