Not everyone has both (or either) parents in their lives.
When there are events at school or for extracurricular activities that call for parents to come show support, these kids often feel left out. Donald Ray Parish Jr., who is a pastor, was well aware of this problem when he chose to organize an event called Breakfast with Dads for the male students at Billy Earl Dade Middle School in South Dallas, Texas.
The event allows students to bring their fathers or father figures to breakfast before school.
He believes that events like this help parents bond with their children and get a better idea of what their school day is like. He has hosted similar events in the past and had a lot of success with them.
He wanted to make sure that every student had a father or father figure to enjoy breakfast with. He called for 50 volunteers within the community who would be interested in filling in for fathers who couldn’t come or step up and be a father figure to kids who didn’t have one in their lives.
Each volunteer would have to sign up on a website to take a background check before they would be allowed to attend the event. He figured they would get a few volunteers, but what happened actually blew his mind. Over 600 men signed up to act as mentors for the young kids.
There were so many people interested in volunteering that the website for the background checks actually crashed.
Parish was thrilled with the interest and grateful for the support of so many men in the community. He never expected such an interest.
The men were excited about volunteering and being able to be a part of the kids’ lives. Many of them had come from situations where they didn’t have a father or father figure to look up to and had either longed for someone to help them or were lucky enough to have someone mentor them. They simply wanted to make to do the same for other kids.
“I did it because so many did it for me. Mentors had such a huge impact on my life,” one man said.
The event had several different workshops and activities for the men to do with the children.
They ranged from making snacks to tying ties. These events are designed to help kids learn what it’s like to be an adult and work with males who are positive role models. Kids who are exposed to things like this are more likely to grow up to be more successful.
Many of these children don’t have positive male role models in their lives. They think of the men they know and aren’t sure where they fit in or how they should act. When they see how real men behave and the responsibilities they handle, the kids learn to push themselves to do better as well.
Parish was so happy with the turnout that he is planning on having more events.
He hopes that he continues to get lots of interest for these events. He says that his goal is to “to continue engaging fathers and father figures to get involved in the lives of young people.”
If these events continue to grow and attract more people, Parish may have to find a new place to host them. That shouldn’t be a problem in a community as helpful as his. Surely someone will volunteer to allow him to use their venue for such a great cause.
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