Nikita Richardson finds a little magic every year, and what she pulls out of her hat continues to inspire.
Richardson is a social work professional at James Matthews Elementary School. Across two months of planning, coordinating and probably some cajoling, she brings together students, counselors, barbers and even librarians.
“One of the biggest challenges was coordinating schedules with the barbers and mentors, who all had different availabilities,” Richardson said. “Additionally, finding enough volunteers to manage the flow of students and make sure everything ran smoothly required careful planning.”
Despite the logistical problems, she figured it out, and the youngsters involved seemed the better for it. In addition to the young men getting some special attention and sage advice from the barbers who volunteer their time for the event, there was also Ricky Williams in the mix. Williams is the director of the Pine Bluff-Jefferson County Library System.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Williams was getting his hair cut one day by one of the volunteer barbers, Lawrence Grissom, who was telling Williams about the program. That lit a fire under Williams.
“I then stated to him how the library should be a partner for this event because we have the largest collection of books in Jefferson County.”
From that encounter, the library donated 120 books to the cause, allowing each of the youngsters to get two free books.
As holds true for many things in life, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. As Richardson said, the event was designed to meet the specific needs of the students.
“Through these discussions, we identified that many students required additional literacy support, positive role models and emotional guidance,” she said. “We tailored the event by integrating mentoring sessions with the barbers, where students can engage in meaningful conversations with role models.”
The young men used such words as “chill” and “cool” in describing how the day went, and they were also into how nice their hair looked, as one can imagine.
In the end, they all walked away standing a little taller and feeling a little better about life, and now they have a couple of books to call their very own. Nice going, Ms. Richardson. The difference you make will be remembered long after their hair grows out again.