Column: When dads help, kids win

Joe Bell didn't miss a beat when the young boy tried to sneak past us Monday night in the hallway of Lucas Elementary School in Iowa City.

“Buddy, where are you going?” he asked, and steered him back the other way.

Over in the first- and second-grade room, team A huddled, scribbling on scratch paper with new No. 2 pencils, working out the spelling of this round's word.

“Hobby,” Kindergarten teacher Dory Smith had told them. “His hobby was racing cars.”

Finally, a blonde boy shyly walked to the microphone held out by a kneeling Gary Glenn.

“H-O-B ... E?” he asked.

“Thank you,” Glenn said, and we all clapped.

Last week was the second-annual team spelling bee sponsored by Lucas Dads Engaged in Engineering Dreams. About 85 first- through sixth-grade students participated - a good cross-section of kids from the school.

Research shows kids' academics improve when moms and dads both invest in their learning, but when you look around elementary schools, it's usually women who volunteer. That's why Lucas Family Resource Center Director Yolanda Spears helped DEED get started here in 2007.

“Dads bring a whole different feeling,” she told me Monday.

The Lucas dads help out with fun nights and parades and plan their own family-friendly, athletic and academic activities. They help their own kids while serving as role models for kids without good adult men in their lives. Everybody wins.

Inside the first- and second-grade room, Smith gave another team their word: “Hair,” she said. “If you're bald, you have no hair.”

The kids giggled and glanced at Glenn, who threw Smith a meaningful look from the corner of his eye.

“Kids look up to their fathers,” Spears told me. “They're excited when dads are around.”

Not just the kids - DEED has been popular since its launch. Fifteen dads and father figures showed up at the group's first meeting. Now, about 40 men are on their mailing list. More dads are joining all the time.

“We're just trying to get families to do things with their kids,” Bell said. His 8-year-old daughter, Kiera, buzzed by and he put a hand on her head.

Sure, some men still are reluctant to carve out their own space on school grounds - Bell said he's gotten a couple of calls from women on behalf of their husbands. It's a good thing that's changing. It's important.

And, as Bell can tell you, it's not hard to do:

“Actually,” he said, “it's a joy.”

Jennifer Hemmingsen's column appears on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Contact the writer at (319) 339-3154 or jennifer.hemmingsen@gazcomm.com