“When a young person sees someone other than their teacher take interest in them, it inspires them. That’s what we want to see happen. These kids need all the support they can get to be successful.” -Rev. Donald Parish Jr.
Meg Storm : Jan 9, 2018 : Faithwire.com
(Dallas, TX)—[Faithwire.com] About a month ago, educators at Billy Earl Dade Middle School in Dallas, Texas realized they had a problem on their hands. Some 150 students had signed up for the school’s first annual “Breakfast with Dads” event, but the organizers were afraid they wouldn’t have enough male mentors on hand. Proving that social media has the power to do incredible things, the school ended up with more than 600 volunteers after putting out a call on Facebook asking for just 50. (Photo Credit: Jason Rodriguez/Twitter/via Faithwire.com)
As the Dallas Morning News reported, children’s advocate Kristina Chäadé Dove took to social media a week before the December 14 event, asking men in the community to give up an hour of their Thursday morning. The post (below) subsequently went viral and an outpouring of responses came in.
“On next Thursday, December 14th at 8:30 AM at Dr. Billy Earle Dade Middle School we will host ‘Breakfast with Dads’ the reality of a great event like this is a lot of our kids will not have a Dad present,” she wrote. “But there is nothing like having a male present in the form of a mentor.”
The event’s organizer, Rev. Donald Parish Jr. of True Lee Missionary Baptist Church, echoed Dove’s sentiments, telling the Dallas Morning News that the mere presence of a father figure could help put the students of the middle school—90 percent of whom come from low-income households—on the right path…
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