When my late son Gabriel was preparing to be inducted into the National Honor Society at Long Branch High School 11 years ago, he had to choose a sponsor. Without hesitation he chose the Rev. Elmer Jackson, the charismatic founder and principal of Westside Christian Academy, a small private school that serves urban youth in Monmouth County.

Jackson and his wife Doris have always had a special knack for motivating others to get on board with their vision and that remains no less true today than it was when Gabriel was volunteering as an after-school tutor.

Black History Month was in full swing at Westside when I visited its new location at  Faith Baptist Tabernacle in Asbury Park for the 22^nd Annual African American Read-In Chain.

The event was created by Dr. Jerrie Scott, professor of urban literacy and director of the Reading Center at the University of Memphis in Tennessee, to encourage all ethnic groups to make reading works authored by African Americans a traditional part of Black History Month celebrations and to increase demand for books authored by African Americans.

Faith Baptist Tabernacle was awash with politicians, police officers, business owners, public school teachers and various other community members when I arrived at 9:30 a.m. for the day-long celebration. At the door was a tall, fit man named Ted, but known to students as Mr. B.

Ted was referred to Westside for part-time work by the National Counsel on Aging after the economy took a sharp downturn in October 2008 and he found himself “unemployed and unemployable.”

He says he barely got done looking into Elmer Jackson’s eyes and shaking his hand before he knew he had been given the right assignment. Westside’s 26 students are separated into three classes: one for boys, one for girls, and one for emerging readers. Three days a week Ted helps keep the boy’s class in check. When Jackson offers him thanks, Ted tells him, “I’m getting more out of this deal than I’m giving you.”

Faith Baptist Tabernacle’s pastor Porter Brown is a retired Asbury Park High School English teacher. I caught up with him and Pasquale Menna, mayor of Red Bank, in the hall discussing Brown’s reading selection, Thank You Ma’am by Langston Hughes.

“I think the presence of others in the community empowers the kids; it makes them stronger,” Menna said.

Meanwhile, Pastor Brown said he sometimes closes his door now that two dozen students and a team of adults share the building after their previous lease expired, but he says, “Symbiotic relationships strengthen all of us.”

Asbury Park Police Department Detective Lieutenant Marshawn Love and Officer Jessenia Davila were last minute additions to the reading schedule. Love read When I Am Old with You  by Angela Johnson and said he was there to promote partnerships among the city, police, and schools as the officer in charge of his department’s Community Relations unit.

Isaac Pelt, Northeast Field Admissions Counselor at the U.S. Naval Academy, drove to Asbury Park from New York City to read from The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson. Pelt has done service tours on nuclear submarines and was a fan of science fiction growing up. He said he came because developing an early love for reading helps students achieve their goals later on.

Although there were a slew of other distinguished guests including New Jersey State Senator Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth), it was Elmer Jackson’s son and Westside staff member Jeff Jackson who delivered the most dramatic reading of the morning.

The younger Jackson read an original story called “Seeing Me; Knowing Us” that he wrote about his experience as the only black child in a new school. Jackson said he wanted to encourage students with the idea that they can write and tell their own stories.

Shari Adrien, a Westside alumnus who now attends public high school, said her tenure at Westside fueled her love of writing. She read from a collection of original poems.

Doris Jackson is the school supervisor. Although she knew in seventh grade that she would be a teacher, she worked for Prudential Financial, Inc. and other companies for most of her adult life. She believes her previous work experience made her “the kind of teacher that knows how to inspire kids and what to inspire them towards.”

Three Westside students have graduated and received full scholarships to college. Among them is the Jacksons' daughter Jasmine, a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

When Westside held its first observation of the African American Read-In Chain back when my son was volunteering, Bruce Springsteen came to read. Doris says they invite him every year and although he didn't come this year, he still invests in the work they’re doing. Whether it’s a local high school student or a local rock star, the Jacksons know how to inspire devotion to their little band of students. They take that devotion and turn it into odds-defying results.