Nevan Gibbens and his mom, Michelle, Tripp Taylor and his mom, Yolanda, and Patrick Horstman and his mom, Christine, are among the Young Men’s Service League Oak Cliff chapter’s charter members. Photography by Gabriel Cano

Nevan Gibbens and his mom, Michelle, Tripp Taylor and his mom, Yolanda, and Patrick Horstman and his mom, Christine, are among the Young Men’s Service League Oak Cliff chapter’s charter members. Photography by Gabriel Cano

There were a lot of teary-eyed moms at the Young Men’s Service League Oak Cliff chapter’s first orientation last February.

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Teenage boys were asked to say one thing they admire about their moms. 

“My son made me cry because he said I inspire him,” chapter founder Christine Horstman says. “I had no idea he felt that way.”

Mother and son Michelle and Nevan Gibbens

Michelle and Nevan Gibbens

The organization, which accepts membership from mothers of sons, provides a way for them to volunteer together.

Horstman, a career coach, was hired to give a workshop for the National Charity League Park Cities chapter a few years ago. That organization focuses on mothers and daughters. One of its members recommended the Young Men’s Service League, but all of the local chapters were full.

A couple of years later, when her son, Patrick, was going through Catholic confirmation at St. Cecilia, he needed to complete service hours. So Horstman contacted the national organization.

Christine and Patrick Horstman

“They were really enthusiastic because they said they’d always wanted to start a chapter in the southern sector of Dallas,” she says.

The Oak Cliff group is the organization’s 100th chapter. The mothers are the members, so they have 30 mothers and 31 sons in the group, which Horstman says is small compared to others.

Mothers can join when their sons are in eighth grade, and they start volunteering in ninth grade. It offers a four-year curriculum. Horstman started the chapter with the support of her son’s school, Bishop Dunne Catholic School, but then opened it to others. New members have come from Townview, Jesuit College Preparatory School and The Shelton School. They’ll recruit eighth-graders, as well as ninth- and 10th-graders, this spring.

The boys run their own meetings, adhering to Robert’s Rules of Order, and they set the agenda for the group, as far as which philanthropies to support.

Yolanda and Tripp Taylor

All of the meetings have been via Zoom so far, but they recently covered public safety, with speakers from the Red Oak police and fire departments. They’ve also touched on topics of relationships and respect.

The moms have their own meetings, where topics have included elder care and preparing financially for kids’ college. Horstman says it’s nice to have some camaraderie. Parents of teens don’t always get to know their kids’ friends’ parents the way they do when they’re younger.

The meetings also give the boys a chance to develop “soft skills” like communication, leadership and flexibility.

She says recruiters find that younger people have many more hard skills, especially related to technology, but they tend to lack some of the interpersonal skills that are expected in the workforce.

Most of the group’s volunteer activities have focused on outdoor things during the pandemic, including cleanup and painting at Kiest Park and distributing food and clothes to drive-up customers.

Besides that, the organization gives parents an inlet into their kids’ lives.

“I just wanted some more things that I can do with him. It’s so hard when they get older,” Horstman says. “That’s been the nicest thing.”