Children Story Archives - Page 2 of 6 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

State Tax Donation Option Helps Deserving Children

The state tax form offers an opportunity to donate a portion of any refund to the West Virginia Children’s Trust Fund. The grant making organization funds child welfare programs statewide.

In the past fiscal year, the fund provided $300,000 to support local programs, awarded 42 Partners in Prevention grants and has registered more than 30 years of preventing child abuse and neglect across West Virginia.

Wood County’s Lisa Weaver is the program coordinator for the Midtown Family Resource Center at Children’s Home Society of West Virginia.

She said the programs throughout 55 counties range from child abuse prevention training and family meal plans to creating innovative school programming for underprivileged youth.

“We’ve helped to present the darkness to light curriculum, which is the sexual abuse prevention training program for community members,” Weaver said. “You can just use those funds in whatever your community sees as a need.”

To make a donation, you check the Children Trust Fund box on the state tax form. The money will come directly out of the tax refund. Find the options for an amount to contribute, and it will be taken out of any refund automatically.

W.Va. Looking For Partners To Help Feed Kids During Summer

The state of West Virginia is looking to partner with local government agencies, nonprofits and other organizations to help run a program to feed kids over the summer.

Through the Department of Education’s “Summer Food Service Program,” children who usually receive meals at school through the School Breakfast Program or National School Lunch Program can access food at sites like schools, churches, community centers, pools, parks, libraries, housing complexes and summer camps.

Summer months can pose a challenge for families in need of food while school isn’t in session, state Superintendent of Schools W. Clayton Burch said in a news release.

“Supporting these sites in your community is one of the most important things you can do to ensure all children have uninterrupted access to nutritious meals this summer,” he said.

An average of 202,273 children in West Virginia — about 78 percent of schoolchildren — depend on free and reduced-price meals at school, according to the state Department of Education.

Organizations interested in becoming a 2022 summer sponsor can contact Cybele Boehm or Samantha Reeves with the Department of Education’s Office of Child Nutrition. They can be reached at cboehm@k12.wv.us or snsnuffer@k12.wv.us or (833) 627-2833. Summer sites will be announced in June.

Parents Begin Receiving Federal Covid Tax Credit Payments This Week

About 39 million families across the U.S. — including 346,000 children in West Virginia — are receiving monthly child payments this week from the U.S. Department of Treasury as a part of the federal COVID-19 relief plan.

Families will get about $3,000 per child each month. The money comes from a temporary expansion of the child tax credit — part of President Biden’s COVID relief package enacted in March. The Child Tax Credit is one of the largest spending measures Congress has passed that goes directly to parents.

These payments could reduce child poverty by 43 percent in West Virginia, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy.

President Joe Biden and most Democrats in Washington are pushing to keep the child tax credit at these levels for four more years.

West Virginia’s congressional delegation is mixed on whether they would support this increased funding.

Republicans lawmakers Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, and U.S. Reps. Carol Miller and David McKinley, and Alex Mooney all say they are reluctant to extend the program. They offered similar statements, saying even though they support the increase to the child tax credit in general, they worry that larger spending packages that Democrats are proposing will hurt working families.

Mooney, Miller and McKinley also added that President Donald Trump’s Tax Cut and Jobs Act 2017 already increased the Child Tax Credit from $1,000 to $2,000 per child.

Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin is the only lawmaker from West Virginia who voted for Biden’s American Rescue Plan, which included additional increases for families. Manchin tweeted on July 14 that he is reserving judgement on the Democrats’ budget proposals until he’s had a chance to review their plan.

Prior to the pandemic, West Virginia had a budget of $ 48 million in federal funding to support child care, according to a spokesperson for the state Department of Health and Human Services. The state has received an additional $249 million in the past year from three COVID relief packages. Much of this funding has gone toward keeping child care centers open.

Lewis County Middle Schoolers Make Ornaments for National Christmas Tree Display

Middle schoolers from Lewis County, West Virginia designed Christmas tree ornaments that are included in the National Christmas Tree display in Washington D.C. It’s part of the America Celebrates annual ornament program, which selects a classroom from each U.S. state and territory to design decorations representing their region.

This is the second year that students from Robert L. Bland Middle school were selected to submit ornaments. Their designs represent West Virginia, with depictions of the New River Gorge, cardinals, rhododendrons and much more state emblems.

The ornaments are hanging on a tree designated for West Virginia. There are 55 other trees representing each state and territory. The trees all surround the National Christmas Tree in President’s Park.

Joseph Merrifield, the art teacher at Robert L. Bland Middle School, says it’s a big deal for his art students to have their work displayed nationally.

“The leaders of the free world walk through President’s Park,” Merrifield said. “It’s a way to get their work out there. That’s the whole object in my opinion, is to let the kids express themselves and let the world see it.”

Creating and submitting the ornaments looked different this year because of the pandemic and remote learning. Last year, Merrifield’s students were given two clear, acrylic halves to design and create. The discs were then shipped back to DC, where they were assembled into ornaments. This year, designs were submitted digitally and then created into ornaments onsite. Merrifield says students were given a template and could use any medium to create a design.

“As a traditional art teacher you’re so used to working with acrylics and colored pencils and crayons and those things,” Merrifield said. “Kids are starting to move more towards that digital medium. I wanted them to work towards their strengths and do things that they were comfortable with. It was really free rein on that template.”

Merrifield says that teaching middle school during a pandemic has been challenging, especially with art, as it’s such a hands-on experience. He says this national opportunity to display students’ artwork is a highlight of 2020.

“Working with students in a pandemic, it’s very hard to keep socially distant,” Merrifield said. “Anything that I could do to try to normalize that through the creative process, the better off we’re gonna be.”

Ornaments designed by students from West Virginia for the America Celebrates program will be on display in Washington throughout December.

Wyoming County Toy Fund Joins Fire Departments to Deliver Holiday Cheer

Holiday charities look different this year because of Coronavirus safety concerns. Some organizations have reimagined holiday toy drives while several events have been canceled. A Wyoming County organization that hasn’t missed a year since 1999 is actually hoping to serve more families this holiday season.

The Wyoming County Toy Fund is partnering with fire departments in 2020 to pass out gifts to the community. The organization serves children 12 years old and younger. Traditionally, organizers and volunteers gather at Wyoming East High School to distribute toys to families with tickets. Tickets are distributed to families identified through the county Department of Health and Human Resources.

This year, organizers wanted to find a way to spread out their distribution in an effort to prevent large crowds. Eight fire departments agreed to help.

Fire departments passing out toys include:

Mullens

Pineville

Oceana

Cyclone

Upper Laurel

Brenton

Coal Mountain

Hanover

Toys will be passed out on Saturday, Dec. 12. Social distancing will be monitored. About 30% of families with tickets usually show up, according to organizers. They’re hoping this year, with increased accessibility throughout the county, more families will be able to participate.

For more information email wyomingcountytoyfund@aol.com.

First W.Va. Child Is Diagnosed With Inflammatory Disease Linked To COVID-19

West Virginia health officials reported the state’s first case of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, or MIS-C, on Tuesday.

The disease is associated with exposure to the coronavirus. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that MIS-C tends to affect children two to four weeks after they’re infected with the coronavirus, causing different body parts like the heart and lungs to become inflamed.

Commissioner Dr. Ayne Amjad from the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health said in a press release Tuesday the development was “an unfortunate reminder that COVID-19 does not just affect the elderly.”

“We must continue to be diligent in our efforts to protect each other by social distancing, wearing masks in public and following all recommendations of local, state and federal health experts,” Amjad said.

The DHHR did not provide any additional information on the child’s location or wellbeing.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 570 children with MIS-C nationwide at the end of July. The CDC also reported 10 deaths.

So far, pediatric experts like Dr. Kathryn Moffett, who is a pediatric infectious disease specialist at West Virginia University, say MIS-C is rare, but there’s still a lot of unknowns about the disease and how the coronavirus infects children in general.

“We shut down schools in March, and so children have really not been the ones out in the community,” Moffett said. “They have a little bit, but they’re not the ones going to bars, gyms. They’re not going to work. So, what we’ve seen in children is a little falsely reassuring. They are different because they haven’t all been together.”

Dr. Mariana Lanata at Marshall Health, a pediatric infections diseases physician, said that while MIS-C is new to West Virginia, it doesn’t change the conversation around young people and the coronavirus much.

“I don’t think that having the first case of MIS-C changes that conversation,” Lanata said. “To me, the conversation has always been the same. We need to be very cautious. Every school needs to have an appropriate plan.”

Lanata said she encourages families to pay attention to resources like a color-coded map on risk to communities from the state Department of Education, which will help local school districts determine closures and reopenings.

“Every family needs to address their own risks individually, as a family, and decide whether sending their kids to school is a good idea for them or not,” Lanata said. “Because depending on your family, your risk might be different, right?”

Both Lanata and Moffett say MIS-C isn’t contagious, but the coronavirus is. She and other experts encourage mask-wearing, good hygiene and social distancing, especially as schools begin to reopen next month.

On Thursday morning there had been nearly 9,000 cases of the coronavirus in West Virginia, 1,800 of which are active.

The state has conducted almost 378,000 tests since March and recorded 166 deaths due to COVID-19.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.