Every other Thursday throughout the school year, Rex Thompson, an employee engagement specialist with Spire, and five other “Spire guys” visit Sigel Elementary School in St. Louis’ inner city to spend an hour or so with some of its male students as part of Spire’s Men’s Mentoring Program.
The program, now in its second year, grew out of the Spire School Resource Program backpack giveaway, which provides backpacks filled with school supplies and snacks to students in some of St. Louis’ most challenged schools. After Sigel’s principal, Dr. Laura Owca, told Thompson about the need some of her male students had for mentorship, Thompson didn’t hesitate. He returned with five male co-workers, and the program was born.
Now, “Spire Day” is something the kids look forward to—so much so that when it looked like Spire Day was going to fall on a snow day, the students told Owca that if the Spire guys were there, they’d show up, too, even if the school was closed.
Thompson told American Gas that because the boys selected for the mentorship face a lot of challenges in and out of school, the mentors spend a good deal of time team building and talking about the future. When most of the students said they wanted to be in the NBA or the NFL when they grew up, the mentors stressed the importance of having a Plan B, and by the end of the year, almost all of the students said they wanted to work for Spire.
“They’re looking at our guys the way they looked at the NBA stars,” Thompson said.
Thompson also serves on the Sigel School Board, a group of interested community members who meet once a month to discuss different issues affecting the school. The Career Day the group hosted brought lawyers and professors and a couple of Spire construction crews to the school.
“The more you work with the kids, the more you’re helping to build the whole community,” he said. “I would hope that any utility would be willing to do this, because the kids never forget.”
Based on the success at Sigel, Thompson is working with Spire teams to start similar programs in Kansas City, Missouri, and in Alabama. The program is also expanding to another school in St. Louis.