Ava Summer School Kindergarten Students Visit Their Community

Ava kindergarten students who attended summer school this year have a better idea now of what goes on in their community.

Several field trips were scheduled in the local community, taking the kids to retail businesses such as Town & Country Supermarket, and to service facilities like the Ava Post Office and the Douglas County Public Library, as well as visits to the Douglas County Herald and the Ava Saddle Club.

Earlier in the summer the students also visited the Ava Fire Station, which is within walking distance of the school.

With transportation funding limited this year, the students and teachers relied on volunteers to take them around town.

Local churches including Ava General Baptist and Pastor Oren Alcorn; Ava Assembly of God, Pastor Buddy Boyd and Brian Garrison; Ava United Methodist Church, with Pastor Marty Blakey; and Highway Church of the Nazarene church member Jim Hanson provided transportation, as did Ava R-1 bus drivers Rolla Swofford and Roger Sanders who volunteered their services to the students.

Kim Johnson showed the students around Town & Country Supermarket and Judy Heier read to the students in conjunction with the “Splash Into Reading” summer program at the library.

Judy Mathes and her niece, Kendra, let the students get up close and personal with horses at the Ava Saddle Club, and staff members Katelyn Adamson and Jill Whorton, from Dr. Scott Mason’s dentist office, went to the school to talk to the students about good oral hygiene.