Get those creative gears turning! The 2025 PBS KIDS Writer Contest is just around the corner!
Nominate an exceptional West Virginia teacher today!
On Demand
On Demand
Watch locally produced documentaries & more.
On Demand
On Demand
West Virginia Morning
Inside Appalachia
West Virginia Week
Mountain Stage
Us & Them
The Legislature Today
Send us your comments and questions.
Stream our board meetings.
Check out the latest WVPB news.
Sign up for our newsletter and get weekly updates.
Meet the WVPB staff.
WV Educational Broadcasting Authority, the WVPB Foundation, and the Friends of WVPB.
Come work with us!
Sponsor impactful and engaging media and entertainment.
Use your IRA to make a gift to WVPB.
Become a member with your gift of $1,000 or more.
A school in the Eastern Panhandle is the latest recipient of a therapy dog through the Communities In Schools: Friends With Paws program.
Berkeley Springs High School in Morgan County received its very own therapy dog this week named Skye. First Lady Cathy Justice made the announcement in a press release Wednesday.
“I am very happy that we were able to place Skye in beautiful Berkeley Springs,” she said in the release. “I think this will be a great home for her, and I can’t wait to hear about all the ways that Skye’s presence will make a positive impact on students’ lives. This is a day of celebration!”
Skye is the seventeenth therapy dog to be placed in West Virginia’s public schools through Friends With Paws. The program began in April 2022 with the first placement at Welch Elementary.
The therapy dog program, according to the governor’s office, was launched as a way to alleviate some of the social-emotional effects of poverty, addiction and other at-risk situations in the state’s Communities In Schools (CIS) counties.
Gov. Jim Justice also noted at the time of launch that the program would help to combat the emotional effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Therapy dogs, according to the National Institutes of Health, provide a benefit in the classroom by increasing a positive mood and providing anti-stress effects on the body.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting (WVPB) last year produced a documentary on the Friends With Paws therapy dog project under the same name. It can be viewed for free on WVPB’s YouTube channel or through PBS Passport.
“Berkeley Springs High School is very thankful for this opportunity through the Friends With Paws program. We are extremely excited to have Skye with us to support and comfort our students,” Principal Mitch Nida said.
Friends With Paws is a partnership between the governor’s office, West Virginia Communities In Schools, and the West Virginia Department of Education.
Fifty-three of the state’s 55 counties are part of CIS.
