Over 600 men showed up to support students with absent fathers at a Texas school’s Breakfast with Dads event.
The school had originally only asked for 50 volunteers, but in a heartwarming show of kindness last month, hundreds of men turned up at Billy Earl Dade Middle School in Dallas.
About 900 students attend the school and about 90 per cent of those students come from low-income families.
About 150 male students, aged 11 to 13, signed up for the Breakfast with Dads event, which was held on December 14 last year.
Children’s advocate Kristina Chäadé Dove wasn’t sure if every student would have a father there so she put out a request for men to attend.
Dove used social media to call for volunteers and posted:
Please Share! Men Needed! 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 alot of our kids will not have a Dad present.
But there is nothing like having a male present in the form of a mentor. We are [in] need of at least 50 or more additional male mentors who can devote 1 hour of their Wednesday morning next week to this cause.
Rev Donald Parish Jr, pastor of True Lee Missionary Baptist Church and the event organizer, told the Dallas Morning News.
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.
The moving program saw mentors and fathers showing the boys how to tie a tie and helped them ‘perfect their half-Windsor knot’.
The idea touched the lives of those who participated as well as inspiring people on the internet and ‘bringing tears to their eyes’.
