Last week nationally known radio show host Michael Baisden came out to Harris-Stowe State University for the One Million Mentors National Campaign to Save Our Kids.
Baisden decided to go through 72 cities in seven months with St. Louis being the 62nd city, stressing the importance of having a mentor in the lives of today’s youth.
Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri and Foxy95.5 helped sponsor the local event, with other mentoring programs on site from the St. Louis area to show support and recruit mentors.
A panel of four men and Baisden spoke to everyone on why it is important to be a mentor to youth.
The Rev. Geoffrey V. Dudley, bishop at the New Life in Christ Church; Big Brother board member Sal Martinez; James Clark, vice president of Community Outreach for Better Family Life, Inc.; and Jeremy Harmon, a Big Brother volunteer from Belleville, gave testimony on how they mentor someone and the value of helping youth.
Harris-Stowe President Henry Givens Jr. opened up the event by speaking on how he had a mentor in his life and how important it was.
“I’ve had the privilege to have mentors in my life and I know they made time for me. This is a cause of action for carrying adults to take one hour a week and spend time with a young person,” Givens said.
Each man from the panel gave examples of how they made an impact and provided some background history on how the youth was behaving before getting a mentor.
The Rev. Dudley spoke on how he deals with individuals who had a rough past before the age of 18 and how they have overcome their obstacles due to having a mentor on their side.
“Aren’t they worth investing in?” Dudley said to the audience.
Clark spoke on how single mothers should start teaching their sons responsibility so they understand what that means. Clark gave a new phrase to men who are not being responsible in their lives: “grown dude.”
“It’s time for African-American males to stand up,” Clark said.
Joking with the audience throughout the event, Baisden touched on what he thinks the issues are with African-American youth. Baisden talked about how the parents and adults are not talking with the youth and how African Americans are holding each other down instead of uplifting one another.
“We’re very prejudiced to our own people. You have to start talking with these kids,” Baisden said.
Baisden gave examples on how parents are not the same as “back in the day,” and how being a mentor can help those youths who are in broken homes.
“Sometimes we need to be mentors from their parents. How can you teach class if you ain’t got class?” Baisden said.
Baisden gave examples using three young children from the audience on how a parent should talk to their children with affection and confidence, giving them names such as princess and prince.
“They start believing it if you do that every day,” Baisden said.
Closing the event, Baisden did an experiment by asking audience members how many people knew someone who was in jail, had committed suicide or been murdered in ages ranging from 10 to 25. By the end of the list, everyone was standing.
“All of our kids are either dead, in jail, illiterate or on their way to jail,” Baisden said. “I really think we can do this. This is an emergency.”