Breaking News
Local News

Hammering home the point: FFMS Eighth grader Hamer Hooper takes to heart helping out his community

By Jeffrey Saulton 3 min read

BEVERLY – Hamer Hooper, a 13-year-old eighth grade student at Fort Frye Middle School, was recently named the 2024 Boys and Girls Club of Washington County Teen Youth of the Year at the Beverly-Waterford site.

Hooper has been involved with the club for a little more than a year. He added he is basically a volunteer at the Beverly-Waterford location of the club, at times helping the staff with things that need to be done at the club's site in addition to helping the students at the club.

Two of his favorite activities at the club are a pair of programs called Class Dojo and Dojo Island.

"You get points for what you do at the club," he said. "There is also Dojo Island which is a world you can explore with the points earned. It is a point system, you get points and you can use the points to get rewards."

He said Dojo Island, which is for teens, allows them to collect points so they can explore the island and work with different crafts ranging from clay to paper or other items.

Hooper said he plans to work with the club for a while, but he's not really sure what aspects of the club he wants to work with later.

Hooper said at the club in Beverly he works with the younger members.

"Mostly I'm there to help them with their homework," he said. "Usually it's math they need the most help with."

Hooper said he has helped with other subjects. For him he said there are two subjects that are his strongest.

"My best subjects are English and history," he said.

For the future he is thinking about going to the Washington County Career Center while in high school. While he has not decided on a definite area he said one area has peaked his interest.

"I might go into the auto mechanics program," he said. "But you have to be a junior before going to the career center."

In addition to the auto mechanics program, he added he is also thinking about entering the U.S. Army after graduating from Fort Frye High School.

"I'm interested in going into the Army," he said. "I'm interested in field artillery."

At school he has been part of the wrestling program but has stepped back and he plans to go back to the sport at a later time.

Hooper also has picked up playing guitar.

"I got into that during the COVID-19 Pandemic, but after that I took a break from it," he said. "But now I'm coming back to it."

He added he wrote a song during that time and he might try another.

Hooper said he is inspired by the music of Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, mostly the songs they were known for in the 1950s. Hooper said the song he wrote is mostly inspired by Elvis.

Starting at /week.