CEDAR HILL, Texas — A North Texas school district just held an inaugural event that allowed adults from around the community to drop in and help some young men learn a valuable fashion lesson.
Cedar Hill Independent School District just held its first-ever "Tie Day" event that took place at three schools over three days in a row. It happened at Permenter Middle School, Collegiate Academy and Bessie Coleman Middle School.
Cecil Sharp heard about the event from his wife, who used to be a teacher in North Texas. Now retired, Sharp has always loved fashion and even learned how to tie a tie himself when he was about seven years old.
"It's the tradition that we need to continue," Sharp said. "I know it's a new age and all that. But there are certain things and traditions that we should keep."
Sharp, who considers himself "old school," passed along that tradition to his three sons, who all learned how to tie a tie early in life as well.
"It's knowing how to dress," Sharp said. "Knowing the little odds and ends that you can do to really dress up."
Sharp also has a daughter whom he found a clever way of involving in his style when she was younger.
"Coming up, my daughter would lose her earrings," Sharp said with a smile. "I would take her diamond earrings, and I would stick it through my tie. And everybody said, 'Oh man, I like that. Where'd you find that?' I'd say, 'Oh, that's my daughter's earrings.'"
Sharp explained to students not only the different types of knots you can tie but also the different types of collars, shirts, and suits that go best with those knots.
"I get pleasure out of working with the young men," Sharp said "Being around them, being exposed to different things."
Watch the full interview with Cecil Sharp here:
Eighth-grader Tony Holmes is one of the middle schoolers who was at the event. Tony plays for the school's basketball team and has to dress up for every game. If he doesn't dress up, he doesn't get to play in the game that night.
"You have to have slacks and church shoes," Tony said. "If you don't have a suit, at least a collared shirt. you have to have a tie and belt as well."
Until this event, Tony has been using clip-on ties. He plans to change that moving forward.
"I'm going to try to work with the ties that I can tie myself now that I've learned how to tie them better," Tony said.
Fellow eighth-grade basketball player Raylon Ghoston is also ready to start tying ties as well. He said he knows there will be value in knowing how to for the future.
"It's good for jobs because if you don't look good, they're not going to give you a job," Ghoston said.
That's part of the reason why Cedar Hill City Councilmember Chad McCurdy also volunteered at this event, wanting to help have a positive impact on the young men in Cedar Hill.
"They kind of want to exert their independence and they don't want us really present even though, I think in the back of their minds, they know that they need us," McCurdy said. "They seem to love it when we actually do get them to kind of break mentally that stigma about associating with adults and start interacting where we can have a teachable moment with them."
That's why McCurdy said he hopes Cedar Hill not only has more "Tie Day" events but also similar gatherings that allow the adults to work on tasks with the middle schoolers.
"As much as they may try to keep us at arm's length, it's important that we keep trying and we keep pouring into our children at every opportunity that we get," McCurdy said. "You never know which moment that you took is going to stick with that student, with that child, with that scholar. And they're going to carry it with them for the rest of their life."