THE ECHO

by Sophia Waggoner

On March 13 over 450 men set out for various classrooms across America. Their goal: to bring positive male role models forward for the younger generation to see.

Men in Action READ! is an event organized by The Sheltering Wings Center bringing out positive male role models to read to elementary school kids. Principal Matt Shockley and 14 students participated. All participants – from the town of Avon – met at Kingsway Christian Church for breakfast, then divided up to attend the different elementary schools around Avon. The high school students visited Cedar and Hickory elementary schools.

Shockley said that this event is an opportunity for these students to be leaders and role within the community when going into these classrooms.

“It’s really an opportunity for men to step up and be, I would say, kind of like role models in regards to coming into the classroom, connecting with kids, and reading,” said Shockley.

Shockley said he was looking forward to seeing the reaction of the high school students and how their presence in the classroom brings an impact.

“It is always the reaction of my high school young men afterwards or during it, to see them in the classroom with the kids is really fun to see, especially if that’s not something that they’ve been used to doing, and they find out how fun it is,” said Shockley

 Shockley said that he aims for the kids that he brings to participate in this event to be from different activities and sports, and being able to positively represent the high school.

“I focus on representing different groups within the school,” Shockley said. “I do try to get a broad cross section of young men that are in different groups to be a part of this.”

Junior Mackaven Tislow said that he hopes that participating in this event will send a message to the community, encouraging everybody to step up and become involved.

“I think that it will positively influence our community by showing that not just a certain amount of people need to do one thing. That our whole community can do it and make a change instead of just a small group,” said Tislow.

Tislow said that he believes him and the other students participating get to help with the growth of the younger kids they read to in class.

“I think it helps us connect with the younger generation and to help them just move forward,” Tislow said.