Damon Parker had just finished giving his speech at Council Grove Jr/Sr High School when the most phenomenal thing happened.
Students began to line up, outside the auditorium, hoping to get a few moments to thank the former wrestling coach for talking about mental health and share their own experiences and struggles with the issue.
Parker was gobsmacked. He had gotten into education years ago to make a difference in children’s lives, and to start touring Kansas high schools through The Jones Project would mean, at least in some part, giving up that original dream.
But as Parker chatted with scores of Council Grove teens, he knew he had found his purpose again.
“I knew it would take something special to take me away from (teaching), and this is the one thing that could have done it,” Parker said. “I’m still working with kids, but it’s just on a bigger scale.”
With the help of Advisors Excel founder Cody Foster, Parker this summer left a teaching job at Washburn Rural High School to dedicate his full time to The Jones Project, a new initiative meant to help Kansas high school recognize and deal with any mental health struggles they may have.
Earlier this month, Parker and clients of Advisors Excel hiked a southwest U.S. mountain more than a dozen times, cumulatively scaling the equivalent of Mount Everest’s height above sea level.
It was a trying feat, but the hikers knew they were doing it for a good cause — money raised from the climb would go benefit The Jones Project. With the help of a two-to-one match program, the hikers aimed to raise $33,000 to ultimately receive $100,000.
On Wednesday morning, though, and after giving a speech at Advisors Excel, Parker got an amazing surprise.
They had raised more than$181,000.
“I heard when we were doing that hike that we might break $100,000, and now we’ve almost doubled that?” a stunned Parker said Wednesday morning. “I’m completely speechless. So many people have given and believed in this, I just don’t know what to say.
After years of quietly struggling with his mental health, Parker had realized he needed help when he was at the funeral of Josh Jones, an employee of Advisors Excel and close friend of the organization's founder Cody Foster.Jones died by suicide in spring 2021.
Parker had not known Jones, but his wife had worked with him. At the funeral, Parker had looked down at the casket and felt troubled when he saw so much of himself in Jones.
After that, the wrestling coach decided to focus more of his efforts on improving his own mental health. In spring 2021, he resigned as the Washburn Rural boys wrestling coach after building the program into a dynasty, although he’ll continue to coach the girls’ program alongside his wife, Lindsay.
Foster, who attended Parker’s speech Wednesday, said it was tough for many of the employees to hear the speech, since many of them had been friends with Jones.
But Foster left the speech convinced that Parker will make a tremendous difference in the lives of Kansas high school students.
“With his background as a teacher and coach, middle and high school kids just became a real opportunity,” Foster said. “I told him to take action and doors will start to open, and the path will become clear to take a step. (With The Jones Project,) we decided to take that step.”
Parker, for his part, said he was extremely grateful for the support he’s received as he begins to kick off his tour of high schools. Following his climb earlier this month, he began to receive calls from school administrators all around the state, and he’s booked through the end of September.
His first step, though, will be to hit the phones and reach out to even more schools.
“Over the next three years, we want to talk to every single high school student in the state of Kansas, and a giant novelty check like that makes it a heck of a lot more possible,” the coach said.
“We’re kind of building the ship right now, so to speak, so who knows what our goals will look like in three years?” Parker said. “But this will make them a lot more attainable.”
Rafael Garcia is an education reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at rgarcia@cjonline.com or by phone at 785-289-5325. Follow him on Twitter at @byRafaelGarcia.
