Our family has a rich history of gratefulness and support for our schools and the children that they serve. David and Debbie Purifoy raised four children. Katie Kempton, their third child, and her husband David Kempton now have three children who are currently in school.
In 1999, David Purifoy owned a security company for the manufacturing industry. He heard about a program that started up much like The Hallway Hero Project where fathers volunteered to be “watchful eyes” at their children's schools. There had been a horrible school shooting in Arkansas the previous year that led a few fathers to start this program at their own children’s Middle school in 1998.
David started as a school counselor in his first few years out of Graduate school and later worked as a Clinical Director of a drug and alcohol treatment program for teenagers and their families. This led him to bring the father volunteer program to his two youngest daughters' school where Katie was in the third grade and Bekah was in the first grade. The program was a volunteer driven way of getting Dads on board to be that extra set of eyes and ears as they patrolled the schoolhouse.
Today, David and Katie Kempton have two children in elementary school that are the same age as Katie and her little sister, Bekah were when they saw their Dad in their school’s halls. David and Katie both have a passion to start this all over for their children.
Debbie Purifoy raised four children while volunteering in schools. As parents, we discovered the benefits of being involved in our children’s education as much as possible. We have reaped the benefits to this day of a close knit family that are involved in bringing their passions to life.
For most schools, moms are more robust in their commitment to school volunteer efforts. This is a GREAT thing! But, we want to bring a vision to schools across the country to encourage father figures, whether dads, uncles, grandads or friends to be the Hallway Heroes for today.
We are aware that not all kids have father figures and also that not all protectors are men, so we would encourage those who serve their kids as protector and “hero” to volunteer on their behalf at school.
Our passion, as a team, is to connect families and provide enhanced safety for our children at school. We hope to never hear of another news story reporting a school shooting, but we are sober and know that unless we give people a reason not to attack, these shootings will continue. This is our way of giving evil people a reason to stay away. And in all of that, we aim to connect fathers and other hero figures with their children in an exciting way to strengthen bonds and help kids have a reason to feels safe, supported, and proud!
