Team Members: Ashley Cuttino, Barbara Fountain, Matt Gould, George Kennedy,  Lauren Simer, Kelly Smith, Al Squire, Iris Wright-Johnson

WATCH D.O.G.S. ® (Dads of Great Students) is an innovative father-involvement, educational initiative of the National Center for Fathering. WATCH D.O.G.S., a K-12 program, invites fathers, grandfathers, uncles or other father figures to volunteer at least one day at their child’s/student’s school during the school year. Individuals sign up at a kick-off event such as a “Dads and Kids Pizza Night,” “Donuts with Dad” or in the office at any time throughout the year. The program is overseen by a “Top Dog” volunteer who partners with the school administrator to coordinate scheduling and identify opportunities for WATCH D.O.G.S. to provide assistance at the school. WATCH D.O.G.S. volunteers perform a variety of tasks during their volunteer day including monitoring the school entrance, assisting with unloading and loading of buses and cars, monitoring the lunch room or helping in the classroom with a teacher’s guidance by working with small groups of students on homework, flashcards, or spelling. The goal of our DLI group is to expand the reach of this program from the two Greenville schools currently implementing this program to include all schools which feed into Wade Hampton High School; Clemson Elementary and the Michelin Challenge Education Program School, East North Street Elementary. The team raised enough money to provide each school with the funds to purchase the WATCH D.O.G.S.® start-up kit.