Ministry encourages students with summer jam

Students headed back to school will have the usual new notebooks, pencils and backpacks to bring to class with them. The 250 or so students who attended the Back-to-School Jam Thursday at the Rhema Word Ministry will also bring to the classroom the encouragement to stay focused on education.

Terrell Fletcher, former runningback for the San Diego Chargers and now a minister and motivational speaker, spoke of the students' responsibility to people who sacrificed to make education a possibility -- such people as former presidents John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

"I have some examples from my own home, how my parents sacrificed personal gain for their children," Fletcher said.

Fletcher, 30, is one of five children, all of whom have gone to college, some earned advanced degrees, and have established themselves in their careers. He also credits football for his success.

"It taught me a lot of life's lessons," he said. "It taught me that hard work pays off. It expanded my horizons and helped me grow as an individual. I'm grateful."

Police chief Steve Strong told the students he hopes they wise up to their potential sooner than he did. He described himself as a boy who was so apathetic about school that teachers had his hearing tested because they thought anyone who could be so silent so long had to be deaf. It took hard living as a migrant farm worker near the Mexican border and sleeping in a van before he realized he needed education. He went on to graduate from college and graduate school with honors.

"The only way you can do what you want to do is to get an education," Strong said.

Cpl. Ike Hammonds reminded the students that 80 percent of young people between the ages of 12 and 17 are not involved in drugs or alcohol or other illegal activity.

"So if anyone offers you drugs and tells you everyone else is doing it," he said, "you are in the majority. Everyone else is not doing it."

Adults who came with the students cheered when Hammonds also told the students to lose their attitude about disagreements they may have with a teacher. Students don't win those arguments, Hammonds said. It's better that parents take them on.

Other speakers included Tonya Mitchell with the Scott County Heart Health Coalition, who encouraged students to eat healthy, and fire chief Rick Ennis, who said that education requires an effort that pays off later in life.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

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