| Submitted By Donnie Price
Esther Laughlin and Barb Tingler
The West Virginia Department of Education has awarded the "Rise and Shine" award to Arnoldsburg School for having the highest breakfast participation in Calhoun County for the 2003-04 school year.
This award comes mostly due to the hard work and dedication of Arnoldsburg's cooks, Esther Laughlin and Barb Tingler. Anyone who can recall their school days at Arnoldsburg School can surely remember the special touch that Mrs. Esther Laughlin placed on the meals that she served. Esther has served 33 years as cook for Calhoun County Schools and is a joy to have on staff. Esther is not only good at her work, she truly loves her work.
We thought it would be interesting to calculate the number of meals that Esther has served during her tenure. When we did the math we were absolutely amazed. An estimated 1,782,000 meals have been handed to students from this wonderful lady. When you consider the estimated population of West Virginia being 1,801,000, one can only be in awe with this amazing feat. If we had included the Summer Programs that Esther has worked over the years the number of meals would well exceed the population of WV.
Barb Tingler, who has been in the school system for 13 years places her own special touch in the kitchen as well. Esther has stated that Barb is wonderful to work with. Esther went on to say that Barb is very dedicated and caring to the needs of our students. Her hard work and dedication has been a major contributor to the special recognition from the WVDE. | 
