A 27-year-old Greenwood teacher is forming an organization designed to get men more active in the community and provide proper role models for boys.
“It’s time for us to step up and be the leaders we need to be in the community, the homes, as well as the church,” Kenderick Cox said.
His group, Here We Stand, will hold its first planning committee meeting at 4 p.m. Saturday at East Elementary School.
It will hold a weekend rally Aug. 26-28. On that Friday, they plan to have a cookout, motivational speakers and games for bonding between fathers and their children or other youngsters in need of a father figure. Saturday will be committed to community service, including helping elderly and disabled citizens. They’ll finish with a Sunday luncheon banquet to honor the men who participated and the sponsors.
Cox was born and raised in Greenwood and graduated with a teaching degree from Delta State University after completing two years at the University of Southern Mississippi.
He’s taught for three years, serving as the inclusion teacher at East Elementary last year.
Too many young men idolize improper role models, and a change of mentality is needed, he said.
He wants to teach them how to conduct themselves in public, meet and greet young ladies and speak proper English with guests. They should strive to be fatherly figures to young adolescents, he said.
His interest in the area was spurred when he took over the Boy Scout troop at Claudine Brown Elementary School. The group swelled from 12 to 78 boys. The mothers would often ask him, “Where are the men?” He said there are others out there, but they tend to put their personal ambitions above community service.
No other partners are working with Cox on the Here We Stand weekend yet, but that’s what the planning meeting is for Saturday.
Cox intends to make it an ongoing effort that will provide scholarships to young men to universities or to learn trades and provide trips out of state to children who have never been outside their communities.
For more information, contact Cox at 299-1274 or here.we.stand2011@gmail.com.
• Contact Charlie Smith at csmith@gwcommonwealth.com.
