The Newton Elementary School cafeteria was bursting at the seams Thursday night with love and Tiger Pride as more than 250 students and dads gathered for a membership drive in the second year of the Tiger Dads program.
Tiger Dad program coordinator and school district social worker Monique Agee was quite emotional after addressing the crowd of enthusiastic fathers, father figures, and excited children. “This is just so much beauty in one place,” an overwhelmed Agee said. Agee was addressing a standing room only crowd in the school cafeteria. Later, as she walked around in the crowd that spilled onto the school lawn where games supervised by high school student volunteers were being played by children, Agee expressed her gratitude. “This is wonderful. There are so many people that have made this possible, but we really want to thank those dads, those men of our community, for supporting these children.”
Tiger Dads began at Newton Elementary School last year as a way for adult males to serve as both a friendly face and role models for elementary students. As a volunteer program, Tiger Dads does not require someone to be a father of a student. The only requirements are submitting to a background check and being willing to spend about eight hours a semester on campus to greet and talk to students as needed.
“As I look around this room, this is nothing but love right here,” Newton elementary teacher Corey Carlton said. “This is a great thing that we are having, and we don’t want it to stop right here.” said Carlton. He said the goal of the program was to build a team, with team being an acronym for Together Everyone Achieves More.
Carlton’s brother, Paul Moffett, came from Atlanta, Georgia in support of his son Dillynn Moffett, a third grader at Newton Elementary. Moffett said he worked his one-to-ten shift and began the drive after his boss told him to go. “(My boss) told me that I couldn’t get this time back,” said Moffett. “He was a military dad, and he understands. He told me to go.”
Moffett said making the drive for this event was a way to give his son a message. “I just want him to know that Daddy really loves him and wants to see him do good,” Moffett said. “It’s hard, but I’ve got to support him. That’s my job. I can’t get this time back.”
Men who participated in the program last year talked with the crowd about what the program meant to them. “All my kids are grown now, but I’m a product of this school,” Eric McCalphin said. “When they asked me about being a Tiger Dad, I wanted to be here to support as much as possible.”
Mayor Antonio Hoye addressed the men in the group by talking about what the children were witnessing. “Look around this room. This is beautiful,” he said. “This is what our kids need to see. We need to rebuild the village mentality because somewhere along the lines we got away from that. It’s got to start with us as men in our community being role models, showing our children the right thing to do, working with our teachers, our educational staff, our community and our churches. We need to lead our children — not just our own — but every one of these children. We need to put down our egos and come together for the benefit of our children because if we don’t, the town’s going to die.”
Agee said meetings are ongoing for a volunteer Tiger Moms program. She and a small group of women are developing a program for the women’s volunteer program that should begin later this semester.
