MORGANTOWN — Gordon Gee was sporting his sunglass Thursday – even with the afternoon’s overcast skies and occasional smattering of rain.
The WVU president wasn’t going all hipster-aloof, however.
He wanted to be a visual part of the lesson plan.
North Elementary School was the site of said lesson, conducted by Becca Fint-Clark and Heather Tanton, who are WVU 4-H extension agents working in youth development projects across the county.
The pair has been popping up everywhere of late – farmers’ markets and the like – to offer up a primer on how youngsters can enjoy the outdoors this summer without subjecting their skin to the potentially harmful effects of UV rays.
“Sun Safety, Sun Fun,” is the name of the presentation.
On this afternoon they were at North Elementary, looking in on a handful of first- and second-graders there for Summer Avalanche, the local school district’s learning enrichment program geared to get students ready for fall.
Tanton wanted to know how many had ever gotten a sunburn.
Most of the hands went up.
Then she wanted to know all the ways one can elevate one’s epidermis from the hurting of the above.
Again, hands.
“Wear a big hat!”
“Sunscreen!”
“Get a haircut!”
She and Clark exchanged “OK, we’ll go with that,” looks on the third entry.
“What else do we need to do to keep safe?” Tanton asked, pointing in the general direction of her eyes.
Enter the university president, who broke out his trusty, shaded clip-ons.
“Sunglasses!” came the happy, collective whoop.
Kanna Anderson, 7, grinned at the spectacle of the president and his spectacles.
“He’s funny,” she said.
Clark, meanwhile, said she appreciated doing serious work in a fun way. The past 15 months of the pandemic, she said, most definitely haven’t contained a laugh track.
“We’re just happy being able to get out again,” she said.
North Elementary Principal Natalie Webb agreed.
“I just look at where we were this time last year.”
Gee, in the meantime, said he’s keeping an unclouded eye on the fall semester at WVU, Delta variants and all.
“We expect to be open,” the president said, adding his office in Stewart Hall will respond whichever way COVID goes.
The president also expects a good vaccination rate among students returning to Morgantown for the term.
“I think we’ll be at 70%,” he said.
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