Mentor provides personal touch

If looking for Dick Parsons on Wednesday, try Olds

Eight-year-old Briana Morell was stumped. She needed to make three costumes, each requiring two yards of cloth and 10 buttons. With cloth at $5 a yard and buttons 10 cents each, would $35 be enough?

Eighty-seven-year-old Dick Parsons looked over Briana's shoulder. Parsons spends his Wednesday afternoons helping students in the after-school program at Fred A. Olds Elementary do their homework. He knows how to guide third-graders out of the fog.

Public schools depend on volunteers. They help shelve books in the libraries, organize science fairs and raise money for equipment and supplies. And, like Parsons, who has volunteered at Olds for seven years, they guide students through stickier bits of homework or in-class assignments.

"Sometimes that one-to-one-personal touch is just what a child needs to make that connection that can be the difference between success and failure in school," said principal Mary Anne Wheeler.

More than 230 people are registered as volunteers at Olds, Wake County's smallest elementary school with 322 students from kindergarten through fifth grade. The volunteers include parents, but also students from nearby Meredith College and N.C. State University and people like Parsons who otherwise have no ties to the school.

Speaking just above a whisper, Parsons walked Briana through the costume problem step by step until she got it: The materials would cost $33.

"That leaves $2 for ice cream, doesn't it?" he said, and they both smiled.

Later, Briana explained why she likes doing homework with Parsons.

"He helps me," she said. "And he gives me a right answer when I get it wrong sometimes. And he's nice."

Parsons and Briana sat at a desk across from the teacher's mailboxes in the school's front office. His white hair seemed all the brighter against his purple Olds Elementary sweatshirt with a wolf, a school mascot, on the front howling "We lo-o-o-ve to learn."

Parsons had never set foot in Olds before he showed up to tutor. His daughter, Julie New, lives in the neighborhood and had wanted to volunteer but realized her job as personnel officer at the state Division of Forest Resources wouldn't leave her time. Parsons, who ran a printing company before he retired 15 years ago, said he'd take her place.

New, 53, said her father didn't volunteer at her elementary school, Ravenscroft, when she was growing up. He was busy with work and, well, guys just didn't do that kind of thing in the 1950s. She thinks her father gets as much out of volunteering at Olds as the kids do.

"He lives for Wednesday," she said. "He's always coming home with a new story. He thrives on being around the children and sharing things with them."

Two years ago, Parsons sold his Raleigh home of 50 years and moved to Whitaker Glen, a retirement community near Five Points. On his refrigerator, in magnetic letters, he spelled out his personal philosophy: "Smile. Be happy. Help somebody." Ask his age, and he says he will be 100 in 13 years.

Parsons gently keeps students focused on their homework but does it with humor. After Parsons helped Jennings Smith, 8, with adjectives and subtraction, the boy stuck his finger into a stapler on the desk and said, "Staple my finger." Without hesitating, Parsons slammed his palm on the table next to the stapler, and Jennings yanked his hand out in a hurry. They both laughed.

As Jennings put his homework back into his Spider-Man folder, a teacher asked Parsons when they would see him again. Parsons, who says he plans to come back to Olds as long as he is able, didn't miss a beat.

"Wednesday," he said.