Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Program seeks to attract some fatherly volunteers

Being new in town, trying to find a simple location like the school cafeteria can sometimes be a task all its own; but it didnt take long for the aroma of fresh chili to grab my sense of smell. Like a starving bloodhound, I followed my nose and soon found my destination.

The event: a chili cook-off for men. The reason: keep reading.

Men in the district have been invited to put in a little volunteer time and the program recently hosted a chili supper.

The cook-off was held at 6 p.m. in the Cabe Middle School cafeteria Tuesday, Feb. 5, to promote parental involvement among fathers and male figures of CMS students.

The event was coordinated by CMS principal Libby White after the school received some parental involvement money from the state department.

Some school districts have a program called Watchdogs that is aimed at getting men involved in the school system through volunteering. They sign up for the days they are available, and they help with whatever the school needs them to do.

The money granted to CMS was not enough to support the Watchdogs program, so White decided to have the chili cook-off instead.

Its an expensive program, White said, so were doing our version of it.

Speakers of the event included Keri Burkman, 4-12 literacy coach; Jeremy Bell, math coach for the school district; Lisa Turner, Coordinated School Health coordinator; and Lynn Failla, director of 21st Century Community Learning Center grant, which provides tutoring for before school, after school and summer school programs.

Burkman took the floor first, sharing statistics about children raised in single-parent homes.

She said 75 percent of teens who commit suicide are raised in single-parent homes, 38 percent of elementary students raised in single-parent homes are low-achieving in test scores and children raised by a single parent are three to four times more likely to have emotional problems when they are adults.

Bell spoke about teaching mathematics more efficiently in the classroom and urged parents to assist teachers by helping children with their homework to improve scores.

Turner spoke about promoting healthier students, faculty and staff in the school district through parental involvement. She shared the recent accomplishments of the CSH program, noting that new water machines and fitness equipment has been placed in all of the teachers lounges in the district in an effort to make the districts faculty and staff healthier.

Failla gave information about how to receive the Gurdon School District newsletter and on a local sorority that will be helping mentor students, one-on-one, in the near future. The sorority will meet Thursday, Feb. 14, to discuss details.

White brought the cook-off to a close, welcoming fathers, grandfathers, uncles and pastors to help at the school  whether they help with odds and ends around the school, drop in just to eat lunch, read or to be available during recess.

White noted that most children today do not have a male figure to look up to at home.

Thats sad, because 20 years ago kids had both parents, she said.

White urged the men to volunteer and be involved in the students lives to make Gurdon a better place to live.

Weve got to all pitch in, she said. The school belongs to the community.

Men interested in volunteering can contact White at 353-4311.

Hopefully we can do something like it again before summer, White said.