By Leslie Collins
Northeast News
April 13, 2011

Some sat in stern concentration. Others grinned as they moved their piece forward.

Instead of filling out worksheets, the first graders at Gladstone Elementary School were in the midst of a checkers tournament.

And they were waiting for their local hero to join them.

Since October, Gladstone’s first graders have studied the life of Ollie Gates, entreprenuer and president of Gates Bar-B-Q, as part of the school’s new “Heroes Project.”

Gladstone Vice Principal Missie Condit said the program originated at Primitivo Garcia Elementary School when a student’s parent, Bob Walkenhorst, suggested the idea. For 10 years and counting Primitivo Garcia has used the program to teach students about ordinary people becoming local heroes.

When Condit transferred from Primitivo Garcia to Gladstone, Walkenhorst encouraged her to adopt the program there, too.

This is the first year for Gladstone’s heroes program and first grade teachers Susan Phillips and Sara Hoenshell scoured a list of local heroes and picked Gates.

“We picked an ordinary person, who’s done extraordinary things. Yes, Mr. Gates has barbecue, but that’s not really the focus,” Phillips said. “It’s all the things he’s done to make Kansas City a better place.”

He pushed for the Black Veterans Memorial at Paseo and 12th Street, founded the Buck O’Neil Education and Research Center, helped revitalize the 12th Street corridor and funded a number of affordable housing developments.

Ask first grader Andrea Tool about Gates and she’ll say, “He loves kids and he gives people jobs. He’s nice and he makes Kansas City a better place to live. He helps people.”

To kick off the project, Phillips and Hoenshell asked their first graders for the definition of a hero.

To the students, heros included figures like Superman and Spiderman.

Then, they showed the class video clips of individuals talking about Gates and his impact on Kansas City.

“I want them to know heroes are everyday people. There are heroes everywhere you turn and they don’t necessarily have to be famous,” Hoenshell said. “I think their definition of a hero would be a lot different today.”

To cement the idea of a local hero, Phillips and Hoenshell took their students on field trips to the Black Veterans Memorial, the Buck O’Neil center, Gates Bar-B-Q visitor’s center and headquarters and Gates Bar-B-Q restaurant where they ate lunch.

Students also visited the plant where Gates’ barbecue sauce is bottled and learned about the process firsthand.

“We were there for an hour and they were just like this,” Phillips said, wide-eyed. “They were amazed. They thought it was really cool to see it (bottling process) actually happen.”

Through artwork, first graders illustrated what they learned on each field trip. They’ve written poems about Gates, drawn portraits of him and summed up what they know about this local hero. Their pictures line the classroom walls and hallways.

In December, Gates visited the school for a personal Q&A session with the first graders.

One of their questions was, ‘Do you take a shower or do you take a bath?’

“He’s just really genuine with the kids,” Hoenshell said. “He truly, truly loves them and they make him smile.

“The last time he came, we had another slide show for him. He got really teary eyed watching it. It was good for the kids to see that they can impact somebody just by being themselves.”

During that visit, the students learned his favorite game is checkers, which inspired them to host a checkers tournament in Gates’ honor on April 5.

When Gates walked through the classroom door, the first graders could hardly contain their excitement.

Some gave him hugs and Gates visited each table, interacting with the children and giving them checkers tips.

“It means a lot to me to have children in Kansas City look at me and say, ‘There’s somebody I appreciate.’ It humbles you,” Gates told Northeast News. “For the kids to think that much of somebody, you really can’t prepare yourself for that.”

For more than an hour, he visited with the first graders and ate lunch with them.

He thanked them for the invitation and left them with the parting words, “Playing checkers is one of my favorite games. The reason we play checkers is so we’ll have an idea of the next move in life.

“So, take checkers and attribute that to life and say, ‘I know the next move if I move this way.’ Look at the next move, so the second move will be to your advantage.”

Asked what she hopes the first graders learn, Condit said the importance of giving back to a community.

“I hope they recognize that people who are ordinary can do extraordinary things and that you don’t have to save someone’s life to be a hero,” Condit said. “It’s about the person you’ve become.

“It’s about them remembering Mr. Gates way down the line when they’ve grown up and have careers. They’re going to remember, ‘He was my hero in first grade.’”

Above, Ollie Gates gives checkers pointers to Gladstone Elementary first graders. Below, Gladstone Elementary first graders show what they’ve learned about Gates through art. Leslie Collins