Authorities to be RUFF’d up
Boys in Heritage Elementary’s Ready yoUrself For the Future program are having a luncheon with local firefighters and police officers
This weekend, a group of boys in the RUFF program will have run in with Madison law enforcement.
Well, sort of.
Boys in Heritage Elementary’s Ready yoUrself For the Future program are having a luncheon with local firefighters and police officers as a way to honor and provide positive influence to the boys.
“Our main goal is to let the boys see that there are positive male role models in leadership roles in their community,” said Anthony Graham, founder of the RUFF and a fifth-grade teacher at Heritage. “A lot of them choose basketball and football players as their role models, but those aren’t tangible heroes. We want someone right in town that’s hero that they can relate to.”
One of those police officers is Officer Ed Sasan, a school resource officer (SRO) at Heritage.
“The benefits of this is to show the boys that they can reach something if you really want it,” Sasan said. “Police officers and firefighters will show their support of this issue because we want to show the young men that to be successful, they to do what we do, you have to learn how to live a good life. And that’s what’s happening for this luncheon.”
School board members Connie Spears and Phil Schmidt are also expected to attend the meeting.
“A lot of students haven’t been outside their apartment complex much,” he said. “We want to let them see the many aspects of jobs so they can build respect for police officers and firefighters. “A lot of boys aren’t really around officers in a positive way and we want them to understand what police do and why they do it.”
The luncheon will take place Saturday Feb. 12 from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. Lunch will be provided by Star Market.
RUFF was created in early December of last year, the 176-member group enlists the help of 15 Bob Jones High School students and 13 fathers, to share their road to success.
The young men receive training in leadership and communication, as well assistance in tutoring.
