Special Community Issue

Lane, 2 Taylor County

J.R. Cabell County

Staci, 8 Mason County She’s spent her free time during the COVID-19 pandemic handing out Bibles in the spirit of offering hope and comfort to people she meets during this frightful and scary time. He is a resilient kid who’s been travel- ing to and from Cleveland Clinic since he was 3 months old for treatment for retinoblastoma—a tumor in his eye— yet remains so outgoing and happy. He never ever lets anyone see just how much he’s been through. He is an incredible kid.

J.R. serves as an ambassador for Raze WV, the statewide youth tobacco pre- vention and education group. With the stay-at-home order, J.R. has stepped up to complete tobacco education ac- tivities at home and to be a leader for other Raze members during this time.

Emalie, 18 Monongalia County She recognized that Christian Help was short-staffed in the afternoons and began volunteering her time in early March. She converted to full-time volun- teerism when schools shifted to online studies. She also regularly steps in where other volunteers are unavailable.

in Canada, China, Fin- land, India, Italy, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Romania, and South Korea. Some of Alexandra’s interview subjects live in places that never implemented stay-at- home orders, and she

testing and the things they tell us to, the whole word could start getting rid of it,” she says. “It’s basically this whole line, and if one person breaks the line, then the whole line will go nuts.” Alexandra says her parents have explained the situation to her and that, because of her knowledge, she’s not as scared as other kids her age might be. She also does research on the virus with her mom—Irene—to keep informed about new developments and to help prepare her for interviews. Despite her current enjoyment of citizen journal- ism, Alexandra wants to be an engi- neer when she grows up—a coder, she says. Until then, do yourself a favor and check out her channel.

a 9-year-old girl living in County who’s keeping uarantine interviewing round the world about ces with the COVID-19 e posts her videos on a nel called “Alexandra Kid ional.” So far she’s inter- ts in New York as well as

says she finds that makes themmore fearful of the virus. Most importantly, she thinks her interviews give people a chance to express themselves and share their perspective with the world. As for her own perspective, Alexandra says that COVID-19 is really bad. “But if we know how to stop it from coming, and if we keep doing more

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