How welcome and important you feel arriving at a party can make the whole event more fun, rewarding — and be an enormous confidence boost to your self-esteem and outlook.

That is exactly a key foundational piece for the innovative inception of "Dads on Duty" at Ponderosa Middle School in Klamath Falls.

What "Dads on Duty" Is

Created by engaged and invested members of Ponderosa's Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) as a means of greeting students each day with a warm presence, strong stability, and contagious energy to start their day — "Dads on Duty" is a hit.

The design is to help provide middle-school students with a safe, enjoyable learning environment.

How It Works

Fifteen different and dedicated dads make up a roster of volunteers who greet students before school opens each morning:

  • Welcoming them
  • Providing assistance when needed
  • Offering sometimes much-needed affirmation and a positive perspective

The Atmosphere

The Ponderosa "Dads on Duty":

  • Play popular music
  • Throw out some trivia questions
  • Give school stickers
  • And most importantly — offer an outpouring of good humor and good will

They help create that first impression that "today is going to be a good day" — by the smiles, warmth, "hellos" and high fives they generously provide for the students.

Why It Works

"We greet kids and challenge them to have a great day. If we can help kids start the day happy, encouraged, and ready to learn, that's a huge win." — Steve Bitzer, Dads on Duty volunteer

The genius of "Dads on Duty" is that it requires almost no resources — just 15 dads willing to give 15 minutes before school three or four times a month.

But the impact compounds:

  • Kids feel seen by adult men who know their names
  • Anxious kids get the warm greeting that resets their morning
  • Bullying is harder when caring adults are visibly present
  • The school feels safer — both objectively and subjectively
  • Father involvement in middle-school life is normalized for kids who might not have it at home

Official Vests, Custom Insignia

These cool and committed dads are bedecked in official "Dads on Duty" vests with a custom insignia designed by a PTO mom and talented artist, Kelly Armijo — to make the role official and to be an identifier for kids to know who the "Dads on Duty" are on any given day.

That official-vest detail matters. It signals that this is a structured program — not random adults loitering near the school — and it makes the dads visibly approachable to any student who needs an adult presence.

Modeled on a Similar Program Elsewhere

The Ponderosa program is modeled on a similar program that received national attention for its dramatic positive impact on school climate at a Louisiana high school.

That program's reach was extraordinary — and Ponderosa's adaptation of the model has been similarly successful at the middle-school level.

What It Takes

For schools considering whether to launch a similar program:

Required

  • A motivated PTO/PTA to organize the volunteer schedule
  • 15-20 committed dads (or father figures — grandfathers, uncles, family friends all welcome)
  • A simple schedule — each dad signs up for a couple of mornings per month
  • Identifiable vests or shirts so kids and staff know who's official
  • Principal/administration buy-in — the program runs on school grounds and needs to be coordinated with normal arrival procedures

Not required

  • A big budget
  • Special training
  • Background checks beyond what schools already require
  • Permanent infrastructure

Why Middle School Especially

Middle school is arguably the hardest stretch of a young person's life:

  • Major social transitions — friendships shift dramatically
  • Hormonal changes that affect everything
  • Academic pressure ramping up
  • Identity exploration in fragile, sometimes painful ways
  • Anxiety and depression beginning to show up in many kids
  • Bullying at its most aggressive across all the school years

Having 15 stable, kind, present adult men greeting kids every morning isn't a silver bullet — but it shifts the daily school-experience baseline in measurable ways.

A Model for Other Klamath Schools

If you're a parent at another Klamath County school — elementary or middle or high — and you're inspired by what Ponderosa is doing:

  • Reach out to Ponderosa's PTO to learn how their program runs
  • Talk to your school's principal about adopting the model
  • Recruit a small founding group of dads willing to commit
  • Get started simple — even a smaller program (5-8 dads) at first builds momentum

The investment is minimal. The impact is real.

Thank You — Dads on Duty

To Steve Bitzer and the other 14 dads showing up at Ponderosa Middle School morning after morning — thank you.

To the PTO members who organized the program, the administrators who supported it, and the PTO mom Kelly Armijo who designed the insignia — thank you.

To the students at Ponderosa — every morning you walk into school greeted by smiling, supportive adult men is a morning that's a little brighter than it would otherwise be.

Have a great day.