Students spend time with male role models at Booker dinner

It takes a village to raise a child.

That's the motto at Booker Elementary School, 2277 N. Martin Luther King Blvd. The school's Gents and Lads dinner is a great example of it.

The dinner was held Nov. 16 at the Silver Nugget, 2140 Las Vegas Blvd. North. The school recruits male role models from surrounding churches and community organizations to spend an evening with its male students and talk to them about life.

Former Booker principal Dr. Beverly Mathis started the Gents and Lads program in 1996. The school had 77 boys at the time, but only seven had fathers at home. Mathis knew this because she and other staff members visited the homes of every student that year to meet the parents.

Mathis and her staff came up with the idea of having a banquet and invited members of their churches to sit with the boys for one evening "and share your experiences."

"If you did not graduate, talk about that and how it's changed your life," Mathis said. "If you did, talk about that. Talk about being a man and about how you are. And talk in complete sentences."

Speaking with proper grammar is very important, Mathis said.

The banquet took place at the school for the first few years and moved to Fitzgeralds and then the Silver Nugget as support increased and attendance grew. This year's event had about 400 attendees. Local churches and organizations previously provided food for the event.

All boys from each grade level give performances at the banquet that they rehearsed at school. Students may sing songs, recite poems or speak about the importance of fathers.

In the years after the program's inception, more fathers of the original 77 boys began to attend the event with their sons, Mathis said.

Tyrone Lathan attended the event with his grandsons Kataruse Johnson, 9, and Montrell Smith Jr., 7. It was his fourth time.

"Kids learn that they mean something to us and we care about them," Lathan said. "If you instill in them (the idea that) I love you and you love me, it's a nurturing relationship that transcends anything else."

Lathan said he would like to see the event go districtwide.

"It builds relationships between the son and parent through academics," he said. "Anything positive to instill in our children at a young age will carry over with them."

The program has not solved the problem of absentee fathers at the school. Booker principal Marcus Mason said he would like to expand the program to include a broader range of male influences.

You can never have enough support from the community, Mason said.

"I can't tell you how many kids are just looking for a role model," he said.

Contact View education reporter Jeff Mosier at jmosier@viewnews.com or 224-5524.