In This Issue
RMRH earns recognitions
Holiday events focus on others
Basketball team boosts reading

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In the News

RMRH BOARD MEMBER NAMED INTERIM CEO OF URBAN LEAGUE

  

Kevin Andrews, 
a member of the Real Men, Real Heroes board of directors, has been named interim  president and CEO of the Urban League of Kansas. Andrews has been with the Urban League for seven years. He brought to the organization an extensive business background from 27 years of experience in management, finance, operations and human resources. He has a bachelor's degree in professional aeronautics and a master's degree in human resource management.

Thank you for your service, Kevin.

  

TEEN HERO KIAH DUGGINS WINS BARTON SCHOLARSHIP

 

   

 

Teen Hero KIAH DUGGINS, an International Baccalaureate senior at Wichita High School East, is the winner of Wichita State University's 2013-2014 Clay Barton Scholarship in Business. Duggins will receive $11,000 a year for four years to attend WSU. The $44,000 Barton Scholarship is the biggest business scholarship in the state. Duggins plans to major in international business and Spanish, and minor in political science at WSU. 

TEEN HERO IS FINALIST FOR GORE SCHOLARSHIP

Teen Hero Courtney Allen of Southeast High School is a finalist in Wichita State University's Distinguished Scholarship Invitational. As a finalist, she is guaranteed a scholarship package and will compete for the Wichita State's Harry Gore Memorial scholarship, which at $48,000 is among the largest undergraduate awards in Kansas. This year's invitational was the largest in history, with 413 students competing. To be invited to compete, students had to have a 24 or higher ACT score and a minimum 3.50 cumulative GPA. Finalists will return to the WSU campus Jan. 30 for final interviews. The Gore Scholars will be announced Jan. 31.

 

TEEN HERO JET MORELAND

COMMITS TO SOUTH DAKOTA

Teen Hero Jet Moreland, a senior defensive back for Heights High School's football team, has made an oral commitment to play football for South Dakota, which recently became Division 1, The Wichita Eagle reports.  

According to the Eagle, Moreland initially was concerned about the distance from Wichita to the South Dakota college when the offer was made last spring. But after taking a visit this weekend, he was impressed with the campus and the people there.

Moreland was an All-Metro selection at defensive back. Moreland also plays basketball, competes in track and field

and owns his own lawn-mowing business.   

 

 

 

JANUARY 2013

Dear Heroes and supporters,

Real Men, Real Heroes is now on Facebook! We hope this will be another useful tool for staying connected to Heroes and sharing info with the general public.
  
If you are on Facebook, please visit our page and "LIKE" us so that you can receive our regular updates: You will find photos of the Heroes and the kids we mentor, updates about events and achievements, and links to interesting articles related to mentoring.
  
If you aren't on Facebook yourself, you probably know someone who is. Market research shows 66% of all U.S. internet users are on Facebook -- compared with 16% on Twitter and 20% on LinkedIn.
  
By the end of December, our Facebook page had more than 100 "likes," which represents people signed up to receive all our updates.  The more people who like our page, the more people who will see our content. In December, more than 1,700 different people had seen some content on our Facebook page.
  
So please spread the word to your family and friends that RMRH is now on Facebook and to look for us there.
  

In the meantime, you can still count on regular newsletters like this one to keep you informed about our many activities and achievements. Thank you for joining us as we begin a new year in service to youth who need mentors.

Real Men, Real Heroes receives multiple honors

Organization recognized for mentoring to students and inmates

Buddy Shannon, RMRH board president, accepts a Good Apple Award from Wichita Public Schools board member Lynn Rogers and superintendent John Allison. Shannon is joined by Teen Heroes Kyle Elliott and Melody Munsell. Wichita Public Schools photo. 
  Real Men, Real Heroes received three significant honors last month:
  • On Dec. 5, Wichita Public Schools presented the Teen Heroes program with a Good Apple Award, given to those whose efforts support the district and its students. Since its inception in 2009, the Teen Hero program has enlisted high school seniors in serving as role models to younger students through classroom visits and direct mentoring. Teen Heroes are chosen for their personal and academic achievements and ability to inspire others. Accepting the award on behalf of the program were Buddy Shannon, RMRH board president, and Teen Heroes Melody Munsell and Kyle Elliott.
  • On Dec. 12, the El Dorado Excel Jaycees presented Hero Buddy Shannon with its Volunteer of the Year Award.  Since 2008, Shannon and Hero Sherdeill Breathett have made monthly visits to mentor men serving time in the El Dorado Correctional Facility. In appreciation, these men who make up the Excel Jaycees chapter have donated $11,000 for RMRH to award as scholarships to children with incarcerated parents.
  • On Dec. 15, RMRH was one of  48 non-profits awarded a Recognition Grant by the Kansas Health Foundation. The grants support efforts to improve community health -- a mission that extends to supporting mentoring programs like ours that are critical to improving the life outcomes for fatherless boys. The grant helps cover the costs associated with coordinating the volunteer-run programs, such as Teen Heroes, Future Heroes and Alpha Esquires.
     

RMRH men, teens and youth observe holidays with service

Events include visits to assisted living center, holiday party for youth

Boys of Future Heroes pose for a group photo at the Life Care Center of Wichita. 

 

Future Heroes greet resident

Real Men, Real Heroes celebrated the Christmas season by bringing cheer to others. The Future Heroes paid a visit to the residents of the Life Care Center of Wichita, an assisted living center. The boys distributed cards and gift bags. "We explained to them prior to the visit that

many of the elderly people living in the home may not otherwise have anyone to visit them over the holidays," said Buddy Shannon, RMRH board president. "The boys understood that their visit would be very meaningful and did not take their role lightly. I was amazed at how

Playing games at the WCH party.

eager they were to interact with the residents.  They never hesitated to express the holiday cheer with those they came in contact with."

In a separate event, Teen Heroes partnered with the adult Heroes to host a  party for residents of the Wichita Children's Home, which included a buffet barbecue dinner, games and gifts. Following the event, a WCH representative sent a thank you message, saying, "
I couldn't delay in sharing how positively our staff and youth have been responding to the Teen Heroes event!  I spoke with boys, girls and staff.  They all smiled as the talked about the event, and appeared genuinely inspired by it. ...The peer interaction and inspirational presentation were appreciated greatly.

 I've never heard such a heartfelt, positive response to an event." 

Hero Michael Bruce (right) and others prepared to serve buffet at the WCH party.
Basketball team provides mentoring and promotes literacy
Boys receive NBA jerseys as reward for reading books
 

River City Thunder (RCT) is the club basketball team sponsored by Real Men, Real Heroes. RCT has a reading program -- part of the Future Heroes' Literacy Program -- for its teams that play in tournaments in South Central Kansas. The program promotes literacy, the importance of good academics and life-skills. Boys are asked to track the number of books and total pages they read during the summer and the top readers are rewarded with a surprise gift. The top 2012 readers were Thomas McAdam (who read nearly 1,700 pages) and Christian Williams (nearly 1,600 pages). RCT currently has three teams  -  2nd-3rd , 4th and 5th grade - that play in the Advanced Basketball League (ABL) at the YMCA's Farha Sports Complex, where the RMRH logo now hangs on a scoreboard. As of this writing, all three teams were unbeaten in the ABL winter-session; the 4th grade team went undefeated and won the fall-season ABL championship in the top division.   

Thomas McAdam (left) shows off his LeBron James jersey while Christian Williams displays his Chris Paul jersey. Boys received the jerseys as prizes for summer reading. 
Among the titles read by Thomas:  "Playing with Purpose" by Mike Yorkey,  "You Never Heard of Willie Mays?!," by Jonah Winter,  "Who Was Babe Ruth" by Joan Holub, "Just As Good: How Larry Doug Changed America's Game," by Chris Crowe, and the  Sugar Creek Gang series by Paul Hutchens.

 

Titles read by Christian include: "Frankenstein: A Cultural History," by Susan Tyler Hitchcock, "Who Was Rosa Parks," Yona Zeldis McDonough, "Mr Harrison is Embarrassin'!" by Dan Gutman, "Dangerous Waters: An Adventure on the Titanic," by Gregory Mone, "From Emporia: The Story of William Allen White" by Beverley Olson Buller, "Vampire State Building," by Elizabeth Levy, and "Dragons Don't Throw Snowballs," by Debbie Dadey.  

There will be a new reading competition when the spring spring season starts in March. 

 

On behalf of Real Men, Real Heroes, that's it for this month. Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter. Please contact Polly Basore, newsletter editor, if you have any questions or suggestions. And feel free to forward this to colleagues and share it on Facebook.