Crash victim known as ‘energetic kid’
SPRAGGS – Charles “Chuck” Calvert was an “energetic kid” who loved learning about how to build robots and one day wanted to be a solider or farm chickens, a family friend said Monday.
“He loved to build things and was very interested in the new 4-H Robotics Club that started in October,” said Christina Becker, who is the Penn State Extension 4-H educator for Greene County and a friend of the family. “He’s going to be missed.”
Charles, 12, a fifth-grade student at Waynesburg Central Elementary School, died Wednesday night when the all-terrain vehicle he was riding flipped over onto him in a wooded area near his Spraggs home. He was taken to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va., where he was pronounced dead hours after the crash, state police said. Police are continuing to investigate the crash.
Becker said the family is leaning on their faith and the community to get them through the tragedy. Charles’ mother, Judy Calvert, is a volunteer leader for the 4-H and also works at Waynesburg Central Elementary where her son attended, Becker said.
“They’re a very, very nice family. Very loving,” Becker said. “They genuinely liked being around people and made people feel good.”
Becker said the family received overwhelming community support during the funeral Sunday afternoon.
“They are very loved in their community and church,” she said. “It was overwhelming to see all of those people come to the funeral.”
That community support was illustrated by the response to a ”GoFundMe” crowd-funding website started last week to help the Calvert family pay for funeral expenses. The page, which can be found at www.gofundme.com/24g6nscc, had raised $22,285 by Monday afternoon, nearly twice its initial goal.
Central Greene Superintendent Brian Uplinger said the district will have special grief counselors available for students and faculty when they return to class Jan. 4.
“We always have those plans in place when something like this occurs,” Uplinger said. “We have already alerted our staff to the tragedy. We’ll be available when we head back into session.”