Saturday Night's Big Event

I was really touched by a wonderful event that was held yesterday (Saturday) for DeLaSalle.
The event was called "100 Men in Aprons", and included close to 100 men who prepared their favorite dish for perhaps 200 guests.
DeLaSalle was one of two community beneficiaries of this fun event. We were originally invited to participate in this event to help boost attendance and to increase the overall funds raised. Our share of the proceeds from the event will be directed to after-school activities for our students, who are often shortchanged from participation in the extensive afterschool activities offered in public and private schools.
I was one of the cooks for the event, as were about fifteen other staff members. Several of our students also cooked, as did maybe ten friends and supporters of DeLaSalle.
It took a lot of preparatory work to serve a special entree that could feed a large crowd. I spent four hours shopping and cooking that morning before I put all of my finished "delights" in my car and drove to Penn Valley Community College to get set up for the three hour event.
As I entered the college grounds, I was surprised to see several of our students and staff directing traffic into the parking areas. At the door to the gym were two other DeLaSalle students, with a dozen more DeLaSalle students inside the gym who greeted me warmly while they worked alongside a large group of our staff helping get everything organized. Each of our students were pleasant and courteous to all of the other arriving cooks and guests. I was very impressed! I could not believe that so many of our students volunteered to spend a big part of their Saturday to help with this community event.
Over my nearly thirty years with DeLaSalle, I have gone to a lot of special events. I find myself wanting to contribute to those agencies that are able to involve the individuals they serve in these events. Over the years, we have done a better job of involving our students in our events, but we always worry because some of our events serve alcohol, and many events are in the evening during the school week.
But yesterday demonstrated how exciting it is to work with our students, who participated in a unique learning activity that successfully fed a large crowd, and introduced many people in Kansas City to the most important "outcome" of our work: the positive and contributing young people who attend DeLaSalle. They are the reason I work at DeLaSalle, and they are the motivation for our staff to come to work every day to make a difference in our community.
I hope you can come by to visit DeLaSalle if you haven't already, or that you come to one of our upcoming events (also involving students) such as The Pumkin Patch on October 10, or our Movie Gala on November 12. Or, if you are patient enough, come to next year's 100 Men in Aprons Event where you can enjoy a taste of DeLaSalle (and a few culinary delights, too!).

Welcome to "DeLaSalle Musings", my occasional blog to acquaint you with an extraordinary school in Kansas City, Missouri.
I have had the privilege of serving at DeLaSalle since May 1980, when I was hired by the original Executive Director, Godfrey S Kobets. My initial duties were in grant writing and fundraising. When Mr. Kobets stepped down as Executive Director in May 1983, I was appointed as the second Executive Director in the history of the organization.
I am now in my 27th year as Executive Director, and thirtieth overall year of service. And since DeLaSalle was established as a private, non-sectarian school in June 1971, I will not only be celebrating my thirtieth year of service to DeLaSalle in the spring of 2010, but we will also be celebrating DeLaSalle's fortieth year of service to Kansas City!
The longevity of DeLaSalle and the continuity of leadership are signal accomplishments for any organization, especially one whose daily survival depends on the generosity of the public and the endorsement of many diverse community organizations and partners.
In the days to come, I will tell you more about the school, myself, Godfrey S Kobets, and the many other incredible individuals who have made DeLaSalle what it is today. I can't wait to begin, but I have to first address a real estate deal that has been confounding our institution for nearly a year. More on that to follow... see you soon!

August 24, 2009

Dear Staff and Board:
Today’s got to be one of the prettiest days ever!
The sun is shining, the temperature is in the low eighties, and there’s hardly a hint of that famous river humidity that can make Kansas City in August simply unbearable.
It almost like summer ended today, and fall began.
And, in a certain sense, a whole new season began today at the DeLaSalle Education Center, where we started our 39th school year early this morning.
Staff began arriving just after 6:00 am today. Even though the building had just been repainted, and all of the bathrooms renovated over the summer, there were still last-minute touch-ups that needed to be checked. Many of us were here by 7:00 am, lining up by the front door to be the first to welcome the students who came by bus or car or foot, eventually filling the building with their energy and youth and vitality.
This is what it’s all about in education: the challenge and wonder of preparing young people to be our future leaders, in the belief that they will change the world for the better.
First days are optimistic and hopeful. Everyone is excited and renewed. Tomorrow may be a little harder. There will be less sunny weather as the weeks and months progress, and the rain comes and then the bitter Kansas City cold pushes its way into our lives.
But today everything came together and went as well as it could possibly go. Our enrollment is already over its maximum. (We had prepared for an enrollment of 140 but went slightly over that in case students moved or transferred over the summer. Unbelievably, 144 students showed up - an “opening-day” record at DeLaSalle!)
And like great sports teams that start the season with high expectations, I think that this year will be our best ever at DeLaSalle. We have a great staff and an involved Board and committed contributors. We’ve got exciting plans for the year and for our students.
Thank you for being part of the DeLaSalle story, for making this first day of school possible for the many young people who may have lost their way or who may have encountered difficulties in their previous schooling.
There’s something in the air, in the climate and in the halls of DeLaSalle. Maybe it’s that purple paint in the trim and on the steps of DeLaSalle that reminds us of our regal possibilities, and our lion-ly heart. I believe it’s the stuff of greatness!

Best,
Jim

August 4, 2009

Dear Friends:
I often get asked what happens to former DeLaSalle students and graduates. I wish there was a simple answer. Sometimes it takes a little time for our graduates to “find themselves”.
For instance, Ossco, Tisa and Terrance* all graduated from DeLaSalle some time ago: Tisa in 1987, Ossco in 1993 and Terrance in 1995.
They each then worked at a series of jobs in their fields of interest. They wanted to own their own business, and after some time, they all succeeded, against enormous odds!
Tisa was a teen mother at DeLaSalle. She worked in our print shop, which awakened a desire in her to own her own business someday.
After graduation, she had a series of jobs in the clothing industry, marrying and raising a family at the same time. She persevered with her dream. Today, she has an upscale clothing shop in Crown Center near downtown Kansas City.
Ossco was a former gang member who had a transforming experience after being chased by a Kansas City policeman.
He was fortunate not to have been shot in this chase. After all, he was carrying a gun and was alleged to have aimed it at the policeman.
He was then given a second chance by a judge who could have sentenced him to a long time in prison. Instead, Ossco was sent(enced) to DeLaSalle!
After graduation, he worked in community organizing and getting kids out of gangs. He persevered with his dream, though, giving talks to young people throughout Kansas City and its suburbs, making sure that principals and students knew he could help them with through their difficulties. He now operates a national consulting business offering gang intervention strategies that have literally saved thousands of young people from gang violence and drugs.
Terrence was another former gang member who went to work in maintenance after graduation from DeLaSalle. He taught himself how to build air conditioning and heating systems, got licensed, and now has his own heating and air conditioning business. In fact, he is helping DeLaSalle in its upcoming capital campaign to renovate its aging facility!
Now, let’s fast forward to some of the sixty young people who graduated from DeLaSalle this spring.
Dominique and Monteke have high hopes of becoming artists. Interestingly, they both left Kansas City this summer to enroll in community colleges in other states. (It is not uncommon for young people living in Kansas City’s urban core to relocate to other cities because of the exceptionally high incidence of random violence in their neighborhoods). They were each involved in arts programming at DeLaSalle, and could be self-employed artists in the future!
Marcus and Ashley intend to go to college this fall, too. Marcus worked his way through high school and even earned 3 college credits at DeLaSalle (in our unique dual credit program). He has enrolled for the fall in a college in Kansas.
Ashley will attend a local community college. She is very talented, even working as a part-time receptionist at DeLaSalle during the past school year.
Then there’s Devon. Devon will not be going to college, unless the prison to which he is sentenced has such a program.
Devon had been struggling with substance abuse for years. We worked hard to try to get him to go clean. He stopped coming to school for a long stretch this past fall. We kept him on our rolls, even going to his house to convince his parents to help us turn him around. Without going into details, his parents were not able to help. Devon came to school off and on in the spring, until he was arrested. He finished up the last of his credits while awaiting his court date. We gave his diploma to his sister who also graduated this spring, who has a promising life ahead of her, as she has purposefully avoided following in her brother’s footsteps.
I hope and believe that Devon’s story is not complete. It takes time for our young people to find themselves. We give every one of our young people the opportunity to turn their lives around. Sometimes it takes a little more time for some of them to find themselves.
Thank you for giving us the time to help our community’s young people. For all of the Devons and Montekes and Osscos and Ashleys. None of them would have made it without you, our friends and supporters.

Jim Dougherty

* All first names in this letter are real, but I have avoided using their last names to protect their identity.

July 31, 2009

Dear Staff and Board:
It’s been a quiet July around the DeLaSalle Education Center. Our high school campus did not offer summer classes for the first time in many years. It was another casualty of the economy. So some of us decided last week that we would invite a small group of students to go to lunch and to see how they were doing.
After picking up four of the students who responded to our phone calls, we met at an inexpensive Mexican restaurant downtown. It was a fun and relaxing lunch. Each of the young men appeared to be glad to be with us. Perhaps it was being away from the peer pressure of a larger school environment that made them open up to us on this day, to tell us illuminating stories of what they had been doing so far this summer.
I was surprised to learn that none of them had found employment or had enrolled in other schools for the summer. They were all at least 16 years old and needed money and were all behind in achieving their high school credits. A significant amount of government money had been allocated to Kansas City this summer to help youth secure temporary employment, but these young men seemed to have missed out on that opportunity, as they had missed out on so many other opportunities in their short lives.
However, I discovered that all of them were doing something positive during the summer. One was babysitting extensively for relatives, another was helping his father with his small business, while the other two were helping their families with odd jobs and work around the house.
As they talked about sleeping late, hanging out with friends, and the latest electronic gadgets and video games, I was reminded of my own summer experiences as a teenager. Although I was blessed in high school with a job in a small catering company, I used to do nearly the same things, hanging out with friends after working late at a banquet hall, and staying up until the early hours of the morning.
There was something magic about that period in my life, and I began to see that these young men had a similar appreciation for the simple but profound pleasures of life. I began to see them differently than I had come to know them during the school year. I already knew too much about the poverty and violence that enveloped their lives, with young friends and relatives dying and all of the other sad circumstances that many our young people experience.
I could now see that they were teenagers just like I had been, like all of us had once been. And we were having fun on this lazy Friday afternoon, just talking about our shared experiences, like how fun it was to watch the sun rise after being up all night.
I saw them with new eyes, and a new understanding, and a new appreciation for the importance of our work. All of the students at DeLaSalle are like you and me, wanting and yearning for meaning and joy in our lives.
This school year, I will try to remind myself of this vision when our students are having trouble getting up early for school, or when they seem to lose hope after watching friends or relatives succumb to the senseless temptations of the streets. I will try to remember that I faced the same personal challenges but in a far different era and environment, and that I had support systems that many of our students lack.
I know that you share with me this vision that all young people in our community should receive a quality education regardless of their backgrounds or life circumstances.
All of us want a better tomorrow, even those of us who have stayed up too late for too many nights looking for it!
I hope you are well and enjoying your summer. See you soon!

Best,
Jim