MACON, Ga. — Students at Bruce Elementary were introduced to a new mentorship program through the 100 Black Men organization.
They're starting a Boy Scout troop at the school to provide more mentorship to students, particularly younger boys.
"It's important to be in your kids' life," Terry Basley said.
Basley's a father of 8 and one of the newest members of 100 Black Men.
"They got years and years of helping out the community especially, around the Southside and community around Macon," Basley said. "It's just something i wanted to be a part of."
He said he wanted to also be a troop leader for the newest Boy Scout Troop at his son's school.
"It's a wonderful thing to lead by example," the dad said. "They wanna be led."
His youngest, Damonie, is a fourth grader at Bruce Elementary.
"I wanna be a cub scout," Damonie said. "I wanna do great things, like giving to the community and helping other kids."
Basley said it's important to have a role model who "just has a positive outlook on the kids' life."
He continued to explain why it's important for the mentorship program to start.
"A lot of the kids don't have the background of having a father in the household," he said. "We're just someone positive they can look up to, someone they can see everyday."
Daniel Morgan and Nnamdi Onyekwuluje are members of the Boy Scouts of America Troop 100 recruiting Cub Scouts from Bruce Elementary.
"We were both Eagle Scouts," Onyekwuluje explained the highest honor Boy Scouts receive.
"We have a lot of time invested into the organization, we know the good that it does for our community. So that's why we wanted to come on," he said.
They have space for 20 boys. On the day of student-led conferences at Bruce Elementary, the troop leaders said they have 11 spots filled and need one more adult to fulfill the four adult requirement.
"100 Black Man has several other programs that deal with boys, but the Boy Scouts is the only program to deal with boys of this age," Morgan explained. "We're proud members and committee members with the 100."
"We're teaching life skills, a lot of things that they learn in scouting and things they won't be able to get inside the classroom," Onyekwuluje said. "It's one of those extracurricular things that give them skills that they can take away and use and apply in their real lives."
Morgan explained they have a similar program at Booker T. Washington High School; one of the next goals for 100 Black Men is to start a similar mentorship program at L-H Williams Elementary.
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