news-record.com

EDEN — The large fish tank in Lisa Gammons’ fourth-grade classroom at Leaksville-Spray Elementary is full of water and water-circulating coils.

Tiny fertilized rainbow trout eggs will be delivered to Gammons’ room this month. Before long, the eggs will begin to develop eyeballs, the first body part to appear.

“The kids are hooked on the eyeballs,” said Krista Hodges, education outreach coordinator for the Dan River Basin Association.

“Trout in the Classroom” is one of the association’s signature projects, said T Butler, a founding member of the group.

Thousands of children in southeastern Virginia have gotten involved through a DRBA chapter and the efforts of Dr. David Jones, an orthodontist in Henry County, Va. Jones, who learned about the program as a member of the national group Trout Unlimited, helped implement it in Virginia.

Butler praises DRBA’s educational staff for bringing the first N.C. Trout in the Classroom program to Leakesville-Spray.

Judy and Rex Rouse of Eden are the first DRBA members to sponsor the program. As River Legacy Circle Members of DRBA, they donated $1,000 for the program in honor of two young friends, Buddy and Harry Wilson, sons of Laurie and Judge Ed Wilson. Buddy is a second-grader at Leakesville-Spray and Harry is in kindergarten.

Judy Rouse heard about the program through Jenny Edwards, a staff member in DRBA’s Eden office, at a Women’s League meeting.

Rex, who enjoys kayaking, liked the idea of children learning how fish grow. He thinks that by nurturing the fish and releasing them in the rivers, young children will grasp the importance of caring for the environment and ensuring a clean river for the future.

In four or five months, the fish in Gammons’ classroom will have grown to fingerling size, and the students who have nurtured them will release them into their native Smith River home, a part of the Dan River Basin in Bassett, Va.

The goals and objectives for the fourth-grade curriculum — learning about North Carolina animals, animal adaptation, conservation, habitat, pollution and ecosystems — fit right in with the trout project.

“The care of living fish will stimulate a direct and meaningful connection with the knowledge students glean from book work,” Edwards told a group of teachers recently.

She said students will learn how pollution in the rivers hurts the fish they have nurtured. “When students are invested in animals, they learn to be responsible to something larger than themselves.”

Lisa Wade, a fourth-grade teacher who already houses a bird and a guinea pig in her classroom, hopes to get a fish tank in her class. Wade said many of her students live near the Smith River and even play and swim there. With Trout in the Classroom, her students may make a connection between knowledge and the river and ultimately, become good citizens of the planet.

DRBA, a nonprofit organization with North Carolina headquarters at 413 Church St., Suite 401 in Eden, deserves credit for bringing the program to Rockingham County as a first in North Carolina.

DRBA provides trails, river access, environmental stewardship and free outings, all to introduce visitors and residents to the rich cultural and natural heritage of the beautiful Dan River Valley.

Anyone interested in providing a Trout in the Classroom program should call (336) 627-6270 or connect online at drba.va@danriver.org.

An Eden native, Rachel Wright is retired as a teacher at Morehead High School and an instructor at Rockingham Community College.