From ‘who is this guy’ to ‘part of the family’ Noah Dawson, Paul Phelan bond in Rotary scholarship program

CEDAR RAPIDS - When Noah Dawson was called out of class in the first or second grade, he assumed he was in trouble.

But instead, the staff at Polk Elementary introduced Noah to Paul Phelan, the CEO of Phelan's Interiors, who wanted to have lunch with Noah.

'I kind of saw this guy with slicked back hair, a mustache,” Dawson, now 19, recalled. 'Who is this guy?”

Dawson and Phelan were some of the first Polk students and Rotarians paired more than a decade ago, when Daybreak Rotary started its Legacy for Learning program at the school.

Over the years, Dawson said Phelan became a father figure to him.

The program was started to get students thinking about their college prospects early, through mentorship and the promise of a college scholarship if they graduated high school.

Many of the children who were part of the program are now old enough to take advantage of those scholarships, which were typically awarded to students during their fifth-grade graduation.

For Dawson, the $3,000-per-semester scholarship is helping him pay for tuition at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, where he is studying business and sports management.

It's been more than a decade since Dawson met Phelan for lunch at Polk, which has since been shuttered, but the two have remained close.

'With Noah, it was easy because he's a good student, and he's a very smart kid. I just sat back and let him do this thing,” Phelan, 56, said, adding that Dawson lived with Phelan and his family last summer while completing an internship in Cedar Rapids between semesters.

'He's very, very comfortable walking into our house when we're gone,” Phelan said. 'He's part of the family.”

The Legacy for Learning program was based at Polk because many of its students came from low-income families, said Daryl Spivey, who helped create the program as a former president of Daybreak Rotary.

When it started, Rotarians visited students as 'lunch buddies” through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.

'We felt we lost grip of those students after they went onto fifth grade,” Spivey said. 'So we did two things. We gave them this scholarship so they'd have something to strive for, ... and we set up mentoring, through Big Brothers Big Sisters, through junior high.”

Although the Cedar Rapids district closed Polk in 2012, the program has continued at three other district elementaries - Arthur, Garfield and the Johnson STEAM Academy.

And the Rotarians keep up with individual students as well.

'We want to make sure the money invested in these kids is well spent,” Phelan said. 'And in this case, it really has been.”

Dawson spoke to the Rotary Club about his progress in November. As a sophomore, he said he struggled, at certain times last semester, to stay on task.

But talking to Daybreak Rotary, he said, 'ultimately gave me motivation because obviously I have these people backing me, giving me their support. And I can't really let them down.”

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