On a chilly January morning recently, a swarm of dads and kids headed to the Buford Arena in the wee hours. Before going to class, first-through-fifth graders at Buford Academy and Buford Senior Academy met with their fathers for breakfast and a few life lessons during a quarterly meeting of the Buford chapter of All Pro Dad, a nationwide nonprofit that works to keep parents and children connected.
It’s the largest chapter in the country, and Buford City Schools has many staffers with school-age children who attend the meetings.
Although the chicken biscuits, provided by a local Chick-fil-A for a small fee, may be a draw, the variety of keynote speakers keeps the members interested. Keeping with the “All Pro” theme, many speakers are involved with sports, but there have been heads of industry, government leaders and others who’ve lead the morning talks across the country.
Former UGA head football Coach Mark Richt is a longtime fixture with the organization, often partnering with Tony Dungy, former head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Indianapolis Colts. Throughout metro Atlanta All Pro Dad chapters have been involved with beautification projects, father/daughter dances and school safety monitoring, to name a few activities.
At this gathering, Ernie Johnson Jr. delivered the message of inspiration.
The sportscaster is currently the lead television voice for Major League Baseball on TBS, hosts “Inside the NBA” for TNT, and contributes to the coverage of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament for Turner and CBS. He’s also the father of the 2020 Buford City Schools Teacher of the Year Maggie Pruitt.
Taking a few pages from his recent autobiography, “Unscripted,” Johnson encouraged parents and children to seek out what he called “blackberry moments.”
He came up with the phrase when he recalled a Little League baseball game where two players went to retrieve a pop fly out the brush. They stumbled upon a grove of blackberry bushes and stuffed their faces instead of retrieving the ball. When parents and teammates came looking for them, they were experiencing an unexpectedly sweet moment.
“Don’t be afraid to step away from the game, meeting, hobby, golf game, conference call or whatever,” said Johnson. “Those little moments when you take the kids to the park, have lunch at school with the kids, take your wife to lunch, those are the sweetest — like stumbling on a field of blackberries.”
Johnson has six children — four adopted, including son Michael who came from Romania as a 3-year-old who couldn’t walk or talk and has become a bright light of the family.
“He loves to say, ‘I love you,’ ” said Johnson. And his high school class learned to sign it and it became a kind of motto for the school.
‘Share in something special’
Derek Rackley brought his daughters, Ella, 7 and Addie, 11 to the early morning event. There were a few yawns, but the chance to spend quality time with their dad made it worth losing a few winks.
“This is a chance to slow down for a minute and share in something special,” Rackley said. He owns a gym, and the grind of being a small business owner can take its toll on family relationships.
“This reinforces to them that nothing’s more important than they are,” he said.
Gregg Gall agreed. He, too, brought daughters — Adeline and Kinley — to spend quality time together.
“I’ve been coming to these for six or seven years,” he said. “It’s a great way to take a break from all the rushing around and hurrying from one place to another.”
Gall has been involved with his children’s schooling from the beginning, but he likes that All Pro Dad is a conduit for those who may be reluctant.
“I help teachers with supplies, come to just about every event when I can. These kinds of things make my day,” he said.
Although “dad” is part of the name, and the original focus is father/child interaction and communication, moms are welcomed and so are grandparents, godparents, uncles, etc. In fact, some chapters are started by women and some have a woman as the team captain.
Scott Chafin, newly hired this school year as an assistant principal at Buford Academy, isn’t new to All Pro Dad. His son Ian is a student at Buford Senior Academy and an avid athlete.
“This adds to the communication between us,” said Chafin. “I’m fortunate that I grew up with a dad, but some who didn’t might not know how to get the conversation started. This gives everyone positive examples of how to make it work.”
Steve Warnstrom, owner of the Chick-fil-A at Mall of Buford, said supporting these events is just one of the programs in his tool box. Warnstrom said he takes part in 700 to 1,000 events similar to this every year. “We’re all so busy with our lives, even the kids with homework, sports and after school events, that getting opportunities to come together as a community are precious,” he said. “I’m just glad that I’m able to be a part of them.”
Simple idea, still going strong
Lynn Hale Elementary in Austin, Texas started an All Pro Dad chapter last school year and saw a significant increase in fathers engaged in education activities.
“The All Pro Dad program gave us a structured curriculum to share with the fathers to help them learn how to support their children in education,” wrote Principal Natasha Harris in a letter to All Pro Dad headquarters. “Our parent engagement has tripled since we started, and our fathers’ presence on and off campus has been impactful in supporting student academic success.”
The success of the program, said All Pro Dad founder Mark Merrill, is its simplicity.
“Anyone can start up a chapter, they just need the permission of the school,” he said.
The idea for All Pro Dad came from a stadium event in Indianapolis. A high school football coach named Bill Bissmeyer had lost his son to a rare illness. Shortly after that crushing loss, he came up with a simple idea to bring dads and kids together for a quick breakfast. He asked dads to introduce their child and give one reason why that kid makes him proud.
“All Pro Dad basically replicated that event and more than 15 years later it’s still going strong,” said Merrill. “We have so many chapters that say before they started All Pro Dads they rarely saw dads on campus. All we did was provide clear goals and help carry them out. In the next five years we hope to grow to 10,000 schools. It’s simple, yet profound, and it works.”
All Pro Dads by the numbers
2 countries with All Pro Dads chapters (There's a chapter in London, England.)
43 All Pro Dads chapters in metro Atlanta
600 members in the Buford chapters (It recently split into two chapters because Buford Academy and Buford Senior Academy recently became two separate schools.)
45 states with All Pro Dads chapters (Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Vermont and Wyoming are the only states without a chapter.)
1,383 All Pro Dads chapters
1,306 All Pro Dads team captains
Source: All Pro Dads
Want to start an All Pro Dad chapter at your school?
Information: AllProDad.com
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