When Joseph Parker of the Scenic Rivers Development Alliance spoke to the McComb Rotary Club last week, I figured it would be an update on the organization’s many recreation activities.
Such as, the Quail Hollow Golf Course is doing this, the Bogue Chitto Water Park is doing that, Lake Okhissa is moving along slowly, and so on.
Parker did mention all those things, but they were not his main topic. Instead, he made it clear that Scenic Rivers wants to branch out into community development — not industrial recruiting, not inviting birdwatchers to visit — but the hard work of making Southwest Mississippi a better place to live for everyone.
Parker called this “beyond critical,” and two other speakers made the same point.
James Wicker introduced Parker by saying Pike County’s population has been essentially flat since the 1940 census — 80 years — and we must convince more people to stay here.
But the final speaker, Rev. Greg Partman, really got my attention. He is pastor of Community of Believers Cultural Fellowship and the director of mentoring for the McComb School District. He is now seeking volunteers for a district-wide mentoring program that he wants to start this fall.
Partman had been at McComb as a coach and teacher assistant, and returned to the district last school year to set up a mentoring program at Denman Junior High School. Quickly the district decided to expand it to each school.
“We are currently working on recruiting mentors,” Partman said in a phone interview Thursday. “I want to have enough men and women to touch all of the children that are going to be identified as needing that extra help.”
So far, a total of 90 students from grades 1 to 12 have been included as candidates for a mentor.
“All 90 are not troublemakers,” Partman said. “It’s a mixture of children. Most of them are struggling with finding success. We are intentionally connecting those children who need some encouragement.”
The program will ask mentors to come to school and spend 30 or 40 minutes with their student twice a week. Most schools are setting aside time between 1 and 2 p.m. for the visits.
Mentors will have to go through a background and fingerprint check, and also some training.
Partman said there are other McComb students who would benefit from an adult willing to spend a little time with them. But he added, “These are the kids we need to do something for right now. Then there are other kids that will get attention.”
Because my job isn’t that demanding and leaves me with lots of free time on my hands, I agreed to be a mentor. More accurately, the truth is I want to help, even though running a business that, like most, is going through huge changes is a big assignment that sometimes wears me down.
It is easy for me to sit at my computer and write editorials about all the fatal shootings this year in and around McComb. Maybe being a mentor actually would do a little something to address the roots of these problems.
Let’s face it, there are some 8-year-olds around here right now who, left unchecked, will grow up to be our killers of the next decade. We’ve got to prevent this.
In recent weeks I’ve written about conversations with Greg Gilmore and Kevin Brown, trying to find out what can be done about all this gunfire. Maybe being a mentor is one way to get out in front of the problem and prevent a kid from criminal acts years down the road.
But wait a second. One of my questions to Partman was this: Can a 61-year-old white guy who grew up in the suburbs of New Orleans really connect with a Black child?
He had a great answer.
“Love and compassion and time don’t see color,” he said. “People see color. When you give me time, when you let me know that you are here for me and available for me, I don’t see a white man or a Black man. If you can show those things to me, it really doesn’t matter what color you are.”
And he added, “If there’s ever been a time when Black folk and white folk and Hispanic folk need each other, we are at that hour. Anybody who wants to help, who has a heart that loves, shows compassion and has time, we certainly want to talk to them.”
I do want to help. I will somehow find the time. I have no idea whether I can make a difference, but I am willing to try. It’s a first step.
As Partman told the Rotary Club, kids in McComb already are getting mentored — “but by the wrong people and the wrong influences.” The crimes of 2022 prove him correct beyond any doubt.
If being a mentor interests you, call Partman at the school district main office, 601-684-4661, or on his cell phone, 601-248-8716.
