Lance McCoy said he was kicked out of middle school in the seventh grade for bad behavior, but went on to earn bachelor's and master's degrees from the Johns Hopkins University.
The 24-year-old Baltimore elementary school teacher credits male mentors, coaches and role models with giving him tools to succeed.
To celebrate and encourage those types of efforts among fathers and their children, McCoy put together a Fathers and Family Festivity Day at the Eubie Blake National Jazz and Cultural Center on Sunday.
Children and their dads got their faces painted and their pictures taken, and families enjoyed food and music.
McCoy's choice of venue wasn't coincidental. As a teen he'd enrolled in a jazz music camp at the West Baltimore center, where students learned about jazz, rehearsed for about a month, then performed in a symposium at the end.
A percussion teacher at the camp — and later, coaches at Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School, where McCoy ran cross country and wrestled — kept him on the right track, he said.
"One idea I began to understand was, 'It's my fault,'" he said. "'If I succeed, it's my fault. If I don't succeed, it's my fault.'"
McCoy, who teaches fourth grade at Yorkwood Elementary, plans to travel to Washington, Dallas, Atlanta and Chicago with his photography studio, BLive Photography, offering family portrait days.
Several of the families took pictures in front of a backdrop set up in the Eubie Blake Center Sunday.
The pictures serve as more than a memento for parents and grandparents, McCoy said. They also get the whole family inside a school so teachers can connect with parents and encourage them to be involved in their children's education.
"When you come to take photos, there's not just going to be a photographer there," he said. "There's going to be love and music."
Jaemellah Kemp, 35, founder of It Takes Two Inc., a group that donates school supplies and scholarships to single-parent students in need, laid out the group's offerings to the families in attendance.
"When it was time to send my son to kindergarten, I had a decision to make: eat for the week or see if I could afford his supplies," said Kemp, of Crofton.
Most parents who have taken advantage of the group's offerings have been single moms, Kemp said, so the Father's Day event was a chance to reach out to single fathers in need.
Plus, this school year will be the group's first serving the Baltimore area, she said.
"It's my God-given vision," she said. "We're focusing on all the youth, especially those who are struggling."
In an outside courtyard, McCoy's brother Tyrrell McCoy painted 9-year-old Nyjae Owens' face in an Avatar-esque blue cat design she had requested.
"I'm an awesome, crime-fighting blue cat!" Nyjae said, as he brushed black whiskers on her cheeks.
Her father, Akia Owens, 26, of Cedonia, said Nyjae had heard about the event at school, and they thought it sounded like a fun way to spend Father's Day together.
"I'm going to pick some books out and get my face painted," Owens said, with a glance over as his 3-year-old son, Akia Jr., toddled up to sip from his water bottle.
John Hudson III, 33, and his 2-year-old son, John "J.J." Hudson IV, wore matching Superman T-shirts, complete with red capes, for the occasion. J.J. spent much of the event in his father's arms, head on his shoulder.
The Father's Day celebration was a chance to see some of the offerings in the community, Hudson said.
"I can show my son what else is available," he said. "They had face painting, drawing, photography, music, arts and crafts, different food — supporting local businesses."
Khalid Williams, 26, a friend of McCoy's who lives in Lauraville, said he thought it was a good way to recognize fathers who are having a good impact on their children's lives.
"Fathers are always underrated," said Williams, a substitute teacher and athletic coach. "You see the bad, but you get to see the good, and see the fathers who are playing a major role."
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