7/29/08

Plain Dealer

Thomas Ott

Go into one of seven barbershops Saturday morning and you may get more than a little off the top. You could get a chance to change a high school student’s life.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Cleveland and Cleveland schools are recruiting men to mentor boys at four high schools: East Tech, James F. Rhodes, John F. Kennedy and Ginn Academy.

The boys are among 2,000 whom the district has targeted as it tries to improve its graduation rate. The recruitment campaign is aimed largely at black men, because most of the teenagers are black.

Big Brothers Big Sisters has about 40 mentors for the program but wants at least 75, said Margaret Mitchell, president and chief executive officer. Recruiting for this school year will continue through November.

The men will meet with the students an hour a week for a year, taking an interest in their lives and encouraging them to graduate from high school.

Recruiters will be at the barbershops Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.

Five of the barbershops are in Cleveland: Flawless Barbershop, 7812 Superior Ave.; Flawless Barbershop, 2766 Van Aken Boulevard; Lake Erie Barber College, 2234 East 55th Street; Ohio Barber College, 5656 Broadway Avenue; and Shear Style-West, 14007 Puritas Avenue. The others are Shear Style Barbershop at 5332 Lee Road, Maple Heights and Shear Style Barbershop at 2082 Taylor Road, Cleveland Heights.

For more information about volunteering, contact Andrea Boggan at 216-621-8223, Ext. 502, or by e-mail at andrea.boggan@bbbs.org