Donna Thornton/News Editor
Several dads had a day in with children at Gadsden’s J.W. Stewart Headstart program, spending time in classrooms with their children and helping out with the serving of meals and other tasks.
Headstart’s Porter Foster said their visit was part of Headstart’s Male Initiative – an effort to encourage men to become more involved in their children’s school activities and their educations.
They had hands-on involvement on Day with Dad. Fathers grabbed milk, cereal, bowls, spoons, fruit and other essential parts of a good breakfast and went around the table serving their children and their classmates.
The children seemed to enjoy their guests.
“They can’t take their eyes off the dads,” one teacher said.
And the fathers seemed to appreciate the attention. The Headstart program, Foster said, certainly appreciated their involvement, and set out to invite dads to do something within their comfort zone.
“A lot of fathers, if you ask them to come to a meeting, they’re not really interested in doing that,” he said. “But if you tell them, we need some work done on our playground, they will come to help.”
Foster said their involvement is essential, because the help is needed and because children need to see good male role models, and because the Headstart program must have involvement from parents and the community as part of its continued operation.
Foster said the Headstart staff keeps track of volunteer involvement.
