Delta Alpha Delta: Dads dig in

Walking around an event at Oak Mountain Elementary School, you are bound to see at least a few men dressed in matching shirts with Greek letters. But these aren’t old fraternity shirts from their college years — they’re part of a new order of dads, the Delta Alpha Deltas. 

The Deltas are a group led by Oak Mountain parent Brad Mize, who saw an opportunity to work and help more dads get involved in their children’s school, whether through volunteering, helping as a room parent or doing handiwork around the school.

While OMES saw strong support from parents through the PTO and room parents, Mize said he saw that most of the parents around the school were moms. He had also heard about the Hoover Dad Brigade, a group of Hoover dads who volunteer around the school district, and wanted to bring a similar group to Oak Mountain.

Because his wife, Jennifer Mize, was involved in the school as room mom and their daughter was friends with former PTO president Amy Riley’s daughter, Mize said other dads would ask how to get involved when they saw him at things such as Grandparents Day.

“I started helping with those [events] and then would get approached by dads, other dads, wanting to help but were intimidated by moms in the PTO and that little nest egg,” Mize said.

The dads, he said, sometimes felt they couldn’t step in where the PTO was already involved, or didn’t know how to offer to help. He wanted to open up opportunities for them.

“I think it kind of closes the gap of not knowing how or exactly where to lend a hand,” said Ben Evans, a dad who is part of the Deltas. “Sometimes we get a little unsure or shoved aside as far as PTO goes, so it just gives a good outlet, a good gap closer there.”

The Deltas have several goals — instilling personal values such as honesty, hope, thrift, hard work and courage; supporting the schools and their staffs; and being an example of good leaders — in their official mission statement, but the largest portion of their goals centers on getting involved.

Chris Moore, a single dad, said he easily decided to join when Mize, also his neighbor, approached him. “Being a single dad and valuing having a good mentor role with not only my kids, but other kids, it was a natural fit for me,” Moore said.

The Delta Alpha Deltas group, Moore said, provides a few things for the kids at OMES.

“I think that dads can play a good, positive role in just being a mentor for kids,” he said. “I think it does two things — one, it lets dads get involved in a predominantly PTO/ momor stay-at-home mom working relationship. Two, it gives dads the opportunities [toget involved].”

Having more dads around the school also helps make sure kids are seeing men involved in their lives and receiving positive male role models, Moore said.

“Especially today with the divorce rate as high as it is, a lot of kids are being raised by one parent,” Moore said. “… Customarily, it’s usually the mom that is the primary caretaker, so I think for solid role models as dads or men to speak life into those kids, I think has a great influence.”

The scope of the Deltas, however, is something Mize hopes to expand from just volunteer work at OMES. Looking at the Hoover Dad Brigade, which had a partnership with a local Home Depot, inspired him to reach out to Lowe’s for a potential partnership. That’s when he learned about Lowe’s Toolbox for Education grants and helped OMES apply for funding.

“Hoover Dad Brigade helped give me an idea of how far and wide this can go,” Mize said. 

The grant application was successful, and OMES now has nearly $80,000 to go toward its new STEM room. The room is just one example of how Mize and the Deltas have helped around the school, said Principal Debbie Horton. 

“When you say, ‘Can you?’ — it’s done before you can even finish,” Horton said.

And while he helped establish the Deltas at OMES, Mize is about to leave the school. His daughter, Bailey, will move on to Oak Mountain Intermediate School in the 2018-19 school year, and he hopes to expand the Deltas to that school. Evans is already preparing to take over the elementary school division of the Deltas and said he is looking forward to seeing it expand throughout Oak Mountain area schools.

“The idea is you’ve got to keep it going at every school,” Evans said. ”So Brad will take it to the intermediate school, but we’ve got to get someone to keep it up at the elementary school.”

Mize is reaching out to individuals involved in the other Oak Mountain schools, and hopes the effort will bolster the overall community as well. 

“It’s about the greater good and the bigger, overall picture,” Moore said. “I think if anybody who is interested sees somebody who has a DADs T-shirt on and is interested in joining should stop and talk to us.”

Mize has been in touch with the principals of all Oak Mountain area schools, and said they have supported the idea. He hopes to form a network of volunteers, role models and ultimately, community, that can help encourage all of Oak Mountain to come together and support school and group fundraisers.

“Hopefully in the future, the dads, the Deltas will be the glue that brings everybody together,” he said. 

It all comes down to “leave it better than you found it,” something that was instilled in him at a young age. 

“The way I see it is I’m borrowing these teachers’ time for my daughter, so the least I could do is try and help make this school better than when Bailey started in kindergarten, when she leaves for third grade,” Mize said.

For more information, follow @DADSOakMtn on Twitter or email Mizeat bmize.dad@gmail.com.