Pupils listen carefully for when to pass a coin to the left or the right Thursday during a story read by Lachelle James. A probation officer and disproportionate minority contact officer with the Allen County Juvenile Court, James spoke at Lima North Middle School on Thursday as part of the Positive Lifestyles Career Program.
David Trinko | The Lima News
Some messages stand the test of time and are worth passing on to another generation.
So it goes with the Positive Lifestyles Career Program, held each year in the Lima schools. On Thursday, it held its 34th edition of the program, which brings in successful Black members of the community to speak to students about overcoming myths and stereotypes.
“We have people who actually speak now who were former students from when we go into the schools,” said Emmanuel Curtis, the coordinator of Closing the Achievement Gap at North Middle School and the event’s organizer since 2006. “Actually, I remember Positive Lifestyles coming into the schools when I was a student. That’s what it’s about, teaching young people how to contribute to society in a positive way, teaching them how to live a focused life.”
Curtis started out as a speaker in the program in 2003 before taking over the storied program three years later.
The program started in 1991 to address the negative stereotypes about what it meant to be Black in the community, to “close the cultural gaps,” as Curtis explained it.
“We have positive people who contribute to community,” said Emmanuel Curtis, the coordinator of Closing the Achievement Gap at North Middle School. “Black, white or indifferent, but this group specifically brings awareness that everybody Black is not the stereotype and biases that we may see, hear or feel.”
There was an impressive list of speakers at Thursday’s event, from people working in social services to law enforcement to business owners. It reminded the students of some basic truths, that if you work hard and stay out of trouble, almost anything is possible.
“You decide when you walk in the room in the morning if you’re going to have a good day or you will have a bad day. Nobody decides that for you,” said Lachelle James, a probation officer and disproportionate minority contact officer for Allen County Juvenile Court.
Certainly many of the speakers talked about the negative consequences of getting involved with the wrong people and doing the wrong things. They also talked about how hard work can help any of the pupils attending the program, numbering thousands and multiple generations after so many years.
The program started as an idea among former Lima Senior career development coordinator Bill Allen, former Lima Senior principal Mitch Black and former Lima mayor David Berger. Now, Curtis is trying to live up to that legacy.
The goal for any of these students isn’t perfection. It’s just to be a little better version of yourself, with the hope of improving the community along the way.
“We’re not perfect, you know,” Curtis said. “We’re trying to be on the right track and trying to do the best we can to being in a better community,” he said.
Like I said, some messages stand the test of time and are worth passing on to another generation.
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David Trinko is editor of The Lima News. Reach him at 567-242-0467, by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @Lima_Trinko.
