Amy Nahley, executive director of the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation, presented Wood County Schools Superintendent Christie Willis with a $35,000 check to help support the 2026 Golden Ticket Summer Reading Challenge during the regular meeting of the Wood County Board of Education Tuesday night. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

PARKERSBURG — Wood County Schools’ Golden Ticket Summer Reading Challenge is expanding beyond the summer months with the addition of five Golden Ticket book vending machines, providing students and families with year-round access to free books.

“The first machine has already been delivered to Mineral Wells Elementary, and a second one scheduled at Blennerhassett Middle School” Ashlee Beatty, director of curriculum and instruction said during the Wood County Board of Education meeting Tuesday. “Additionally, two machines will be placed in community sites, Discovery World on Market and the Emerson branch of the Parkersburg and Wood County Public Library.”

Beatty said the machines were funded through generous support from the Spartan Foundation and Hap and Meg Esbenshade.

Launched in summer 2023, Beatty said the program aims to increase summer reading and access to books for students.

She said before summer begins, every student — and anyone in the community who wishes to participate — receives a golden ticket reading log and a brand-new book to kick off their reading.

Wood County Board of Education member Ron Tice looks at a picture of a vending machine that will be used for the Golden Ticket Summer Reading Challenge and will also provide students and families with year-round access to free books. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

“As they read throughout the summer, they collect golden tickets by visiting their designated pickup spots,” Beatty said. “Those are our public libraries, the YMCA, Energy Express and our summer school programs.”

Midway through the summer and again at the end, she said the program hosts giant book fairs where the best reward for reading is more reading material.

“What better thing to reward them with but more books,” Beatty said. “Kids walk out with stacks of books.”

Amy Nahley, executive director of the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation, also presented the board with a $35,000 check to help support the 2026 summer reading program.

“Lots of good things have come from this,” Nahley said.

Kate Hushion, founder of ArtCart, spoke to the Wood County Board of Education Tuesday night, saying the program has grown into a statewide model for mobile arts education, now serving 13 counties and 55 elementary schools across West Virginia. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

Beatty said the district was fortunate to be in a community where multiple organizations value literacy.

“These collaborative efforts have led to stronger connections in our community,” Beatty said. “And the development of new literacy initiatives that benefit students across our county.”

Kate Hushion, founder of ArtCart, told the board the program has grown into a statewide model for mobile arts education, now serving 13 counties and 55 elementary schools across West Virginia.

“We started in Wood County Schools as a pilot in 2016, so we’re officially coming up on our 10th year, which is pretty incredible to think about,” Hushion said. “It’s been quite a journey, but it’s been a lot of fun, and we are very, very appreciative of the growth that we have here in Wood County.”

She said that ArtCart is rooted in her own experience growing up in Parkersburg, where she saw firsthand what happens when art is cut from schools.

“Art was cut in elementary schools when I was in elementary school. So this has always been a passion of mine, to be able to bring this opportunity back to the kids,” she said. “I’ve been very grateful that the Board of Ed and Wood County Schools have supported that mission as well.”

She stressed that art is not an optional add-on.

“I always like to highlight the many benefits of art education and that it’s not something that’s extra; it’s something that’s needed in order to have a well-rounded education for our students,” Hushion said.

Among those benefits, she singled out socio-emotional development — including self-confidence and self-expression — as central goals of the program.

“These are things that we really try to emphasize in our class, which is that there are no mistakes, and if there is a mistake, you can work around it,” she said. “We want our students to feel like they can express themselves, share ideas and build on that and work through things.”

She said by the end of the year, second through fifth graders will have experienced more than 25 different art mediums and a full spectrum of techniques.

“Painting, printmaking, drawing, sculpture, mixed media, you name it, they do it,” Hushion said.

In recent years, she said ArtCart has focused on publicly recognizing students’ artistic achievements. The program introduced “Artist Awards” three years ago, and this year moved those recognitions into school assemblies.

“For the last three years, we have added Artist Awards to what we provided in terms of showcasing their work,” Hushion said. “It was something that we were sharing on social media, but this year we have taken it directly to assemblies, and we’ve had a very, very positive response from not just parents and students, but principals.”

She said principals have appreciated the chance to celebrate students for talents beyond sports and core academics.

“The students are celebrated and recognized in a larger format on something that they really enjoy and they achieve, that might be different than sports or some of the core subjects,” she said. “So they really appreciated being recognized in front of their peers. This is something that we hope to continue to do next year.”

Hushion thanked the board and the district for their continued support of the program.

“It means a lot,” she said. “If there are words greater than ‘thank you,’ I would say them, but all I can say is thank you. We really appreciate it, and it makes a big difference.”