Texas School Asked For 50 Men To Stand In For Absent Fathers At ‘Breakfast With Dads’ And Almost 600 Men Answered The Call

Billy Earl Dade Middle School in Dallas thought they had a problem on their hands for their "Breakfast with Dads" event.

About 150 male students, ages 11 to 13, signed up.

But event organizers were concerned that some would attend without a male figure at their side, so they put out a call for volunteers who could serve as mentors.

The middle school has a population of nearly 900 students and about 90 per cent of those pupils come from low-income families.

So many men were registering for the event, that the volunteer sign up website that conducts background checks crashed from so much traffic.

When the day came for the event, nearly 600 men showed up to help and mentor the boys, some of them volunteering for the first time.

"We thought we would get 50 people," Parish said. 50 turned into 600.

The event encourages students to bring their dads out for breakfast and some mentoring activities.

Many of the first-time volunteers indicated it wouldn’t be their last occasion donating their time.

One volunteer told NBC 5:

He didn’t hesitate to sign up for the event because when he was young he had male role models who gave him opportunities and supported him.

"I just wanted to do the same thing," he said.

School administrators and event organizers were overwhelmed by the number of men who volunteered their time to give the boys a supportive environment.

Kristina Dove, who helped organize the breakfast, said she hopes to grow the event into something larger that continues into the future.

"Our next step is to bring the guys together again and have them participate in various opportunities for mentorship," she told ABC News.

The moving program has not only touched the lives of those who participated

. . .but it also made its rounds on the internet as several people on social media said the inspirational event 'brought tears' to their eyes.