Who wouldn’t want to start their day with dozens of people lining the sidewalk, cheering you on?
The pupils at Lima’s four middle schools will get their chance Thursday. And the men of the Lima community will get their chance to “Step Up!”
Organizers from Bradfield Community Center, the Lima Fire Department and Health Partners of Western Ohio are unveiling Step Up! on Thursday morning.
The goal is to find 100 men to welcome the children to school Thursday morning as they start the new quarter. It mimics events in bigger cities at the beginning of the school year, when men lined the streets to give the youngsters high-fives and words of encouragement. They’re looking for fathers, uncles, older brothers and athletes, along with other men in the community, to come out.
“It’d be great if we could get some people out there with signs and giving the kids high-fives,” said Chris Jackson, an inspector with the Lima Fire Department. “We want to encourage the kids about their grades.”
It’s an exciting event that brings our community’s enthusiasm, cheering for its successful sports teams, into the academic setting. It shows we can care just as much about A’s as we do TDs and as much about math scores as we do 100-yard dash times.
Organizers are asking men to call ahead to Monica Pughsley at the Bradfield Center at 419-228-7766 or to Jackson at 419-371-6198 to commit to being at a particular school Thursday morning. There’s also a Facebook event page set up at http://j.mp/stepuplima.
Men who’ve signed up to greet the students should gather outside North Middle School, 1135 N. West St., at 6:50 a.m., outside South Science Technology Magnet, 755 St. Johns Ave., at 7:15 a.m.; outside Liberty Arts Magnet, 338 W. Kibby St., at 7:30 a.m.; and outside West Middle School, 503 N. Cable Road, at 7:45 a.m.
The goal is to show pupils at all the schools that men in the community care, said Kesha Drake, executive director of the Bradfield Community Association.
“We want to show these kids the skills they’ll need to lead successful lives,” Drake said.
It’s important for them to know these are men interesting in their lives, too. The U.S. Census Bureau says 24 million children, or one out of every three kids, live in a home without the biological father living there. Children in homes without fathers present are almost four times more likely to be poor.
It’s important for Lima’s men to step up and show these students they care.
“In some situations, they don’t know how a real family operates,” Jackson said. “We need to show them.”
Thursday morning is just a symbolic event, but organizers hope it helps build “The Tomorrow Project” up in the process. It’s a school mentorship program, connecting adult mentors to students in ninth through 12th grades. The goal is to create a one-to-one relationship between student and mentor, with 100 mentors helping 100 teens.
Monica Pughsley, the program director for The Tomorrow Project, said there will be two, six-hour training programs that should be fun and informative in mid-November.
“We’re going to be engaging in these people’s lives,” Pughsley said.
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