Knight of Pythagoras Mentoring Network - Palm Beach County

National radio host aims to recruit mentors for young men

Tuesday, 27 April 2010

WEST PALM BEACH – Members of the Knights of Pythagoras Mentoring Network attended a special event recently featuring nationally syndicated radio host Michael Baisden at the Harriet Himmel Theater, downtown West Palm Beach.

Baisden brought his One Million Mentors Campaign to Save Our Kids to West Palm Beach on . It was part of a 72-city national tour.

“We applaud Michael Baisden for this noble and worthwhile endeavor,” said C. Ron Allen, founder, president and CEO of the local mentoring organization. “Our community partners want to better inform the public about the various youth related programs available in our area; and, how there is a need for more adults to volunteer their time and talent to help mold our youth into ambitious and productive citizens.”

The goal of the tour is to help increase the roster and funding for mentoring and youth programs in each of the 72 cities that broadcast his radio program, “The Michael Baisden Show.”

“At some point, you feel you have to do something besides just talking about it,” Baisden said of One Million Mentors, a national campaign to save our kids. “People need to stop sitting back, watching the news and shaking their heads.”

Baisden has donated matching funds up to $5,000 in each city on the tour to go to work for local branches of organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and the Boys & Girls Club of America -- both of which have partnered with Baisden for the One Million Mentors tour. Other partners include National Cares Mentoring Movement, 100 Black Men of America and The Mentoring Center.

The catalyst for taking Baisden’s support of mentor programs from the airwaves to the streets was the death of Derrion Albert, 16, a high school honors student in Baisden’s native Chicago who was beaten to death last September.

Albert was a bystander killed during a street fight between two factions at his school, neither of which he was a member.

Baisden -- who mentors kids, particularly in Chicago -- said teens and young adults today are at more of a disadvantage than those of his generation.

“There were a lot more men in the community back then,” Allen said. “Everybody was a mentor back then. Coaches, pastors, the guy at the grocery store. There were a lot more male teachers back then, too.”

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