By Sarah Thomack
St. Joseph Post
There were some new faces around the tables for breakfast at Edison Elementary School in St. Joseph Tuesday morning.
Several Missouri Western State University football players and officers from the St. Joseph Police Department joined 6th grade boys from Edison to kick off a mentoring program.
“In education, a lot of times, mainly what you see is female teachers and so our boys don’t really get that opportunity to connect with a lot of male teachers or male role models through the day,” said Angie Hernandez, the Family Involvement Coordinator at Edison. “So we wanted to make sure to pair our boys with that because it also opens their eyes to different positive male role models that are out in our community. When this is over with, our hope is they will see their mentor out and about and this is a connection and a relationship that will start today and will grow from now on that these boys will take with them for the rest of their life.”
Edison partnered with the United Way of Greater St. Joseph which helped organize and connect the people needed to get the program started this year.
“Coach Steve asked the whole football team if anyone was free Tuesday mornings.. I was one of the guys that raised my hand,” said Evan Clark, a freshman on the Missouri Western football team. “Growing up, some kids have it tough and you don’t know what a small thing like having breakfast with someone who could be a potential role model can do for you, so I’m here to help out, especially if I can actually fulfill that for some kids.”
Officer Jason Hill with the SJPD said the weekly breakfast gives the officers the opportunity to make connections with students.
“They’re able to see police in a more positive role when we come here and get to talk to them, as opposed to showing up when their house gets broken into or the domestic violence situations where the kids have to be witness to that, they get to see us here hopefully as friends,” Hill said.
The players and officers will each have breakfast with their group of students once a week for the rest of the school year. The first Tuesday breakfast was spent playing “get-to-know-you” games incorporating Jenga, Yahtzee and more.