Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 1, 1992 TAG: 9202010059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
THE 3 R'S INCLUDE ROLE MODELS FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN IN ROANOKE
Mary Hackley looked across her domain, the young schoolchildren of Roanoke. Something was wrong.The kids had few men to look up to.
Hackley is city elementary education director. She knows the national alarm over good male role models.
What could she do right here in Roanoke? Hackley wrote 30 Roanoke men, all highly recommended, and asked them to adopt a class of elementary kids somewhere in the city.
Be a steady, upbeat presence, she asked.
Drop by their classrooms once a month. Share your life story. Be somebody the kids can count on.
She was surprised when 20 men agreed.
Job changes knocked out a few, but right now 17 men are serving as soldiers in Hackley's Operation Motivate.
Assistant City Manager Earl Reynolds enlisted. So did former VMI basketball stars Damon and Ramon Williams. The rest are well-known, too - ministers, a sheriff's deputy, businessmen, a retired principal, a city planner, a newspaper columnist, a reporter, a YMCA official, a city personnel officer.
Some are young, some are old; most are middle-aged. Some are white; most are black.
The men could pick their school, or Hackley suggested one. She brought them together for coffee a couple of weeks ago. Most of the men are just beginning their school visits.
Already, Hackley likes the results. "One gentlemen walked in and the class was overwhelmed," she said. The kids looked him over and claimed him as their own right away.
She's hoping to recruit 50 men for Operation Motivate. She said she screens them carefully.
Friday afternoon, the Rev. John Rhone dropped by to see his class of third-graders at Fishburn Park Elementary. "Hi, Mr. Rhone," the 25 children greeted him in unison. They'd met him a few days earlier.
The Baptist minister, 33, was upset. McDonald's had given him gift certificates for the class, but his mail was late and he couldn't bring them Friday.
This may only make him more of a real guy to the kids - a man who, try as he might, still copes with disappointment. "I promise you that I'll bring them by to you Monday," he said.
Rhone, a former elementary teacher in New Haven, Conn., paced the room and talked about drugs. He was the picture of male success - a trim young man in a nice-fitting gray suit, fashionable tie, neat beard, shiny black shoes.
He led the children in repeated chants: "Freedom. You can use it. You can abuse it. You can lose it."
In Connecticut, he took seminars under noted Yale University child psychiatrist James Comer. "One of the things that Dr. Comer said is, if we can affect the small kids, maybe we can save the high schools a lot of trouble," Rhone said.
Rhone has given the class his phone numbers if they need help. "If they don't have lunch money, I want to be here for that." If they're mad at somebody at school, maybe he can mediate.
He plans to come by every week. "I'm going to share with them some of the things I've been through - the good things and the bad things."
Rhone was an adopted child. He was in the Marine Corps and in the Peace Corps. He's a candidate for two pastorates.
If everything works out, Rhone may follow the class next year and the year after. "I want it to be good for that kid who thinks there's no one out there who cares for them."
Emily McCown, the children's teacher, said some of her students have only one parent at home.
"Just by watching their faces," she said, "I can see he's already created a spark."