Organization of the year

King’s stick-to-it approach leads to Lamplighters growth

By St. Clair Murraine
Outlook Staff Writer

 A lot was going on in Royle King’s life in 2008 when he was a junior at FAMU.

In addition to his full load of classes as a School of Journalism and Graphic Arts student, King held down a part-time job as well. 

At the same time, he had an urge to establish a mentoring organization similar to the one he grew up in as a high school student in Dallas, Texas.

At one point, it became a little overwhelming. But King persisted with plans to develop the Omega Lamplighters organization that he started. Too many people had poured into him and he didn’t see giving up on the group as an option, he said.

“I looked at the sacrifices that they made. I was extremely honored that those people would take time and spend however long it was with me,” King said. “I honor those persons and I didn’t want to be another person who started something and then abandoned it. I was trying to create something positive.”

Thirteen years later it looks like he’s done a pretty good job. The work that King and his supporters have done in touching thousands of young lives makes the Omega Lamplighters the Capital Outlook’s choice for Organization of the Year for 2021.

The honor is the latest one for the organization. As the person out front King has also been recognized with individual awards, although he credits the accomplishments to the Lamplighters and anyone who had anything to do with the organization.

Just recently, Mayor John Dailey presented King with the Tallahassee Award. Some of the others accolades include the Black Enterprise Be Modern Man, Leon County Community “LEGO” Well-Being Award and being a finalist in 2015 for the  Tallahassee Democrat Volunteer of the Year for Civic Service. 

When King and a few of his fraternity brothers founded the organization, they didn’t have a specific plan on how or what they will do to help the young people. They just knew they wanted to impact their lives for better.

Today the Lamplighters work because of several mentors who volunteer, taking the lead in different areas of the group’s life skills curriculum.

The original organization started with a handful of young boys who were curious more than anything else. The ones who were there brought others and today word-of-mouth is still proving to be the best way to recruit.

It is how Jaylen Ezekiel, a Florida High senior who is taking college courses at TCC, heard about the Lamplighters. He had recently given up playing football when his father suggested that he check out the Lamplighters, he said.

That was in 2018 and he has since become president of the group and captain of the step team. 

At first, he found being in the organization “a little intrigued partly because I like to dance and they stepped so I decided I can go and join the team,” Ezekiel said. “It was a little bit that I liked a lot.

“It was then I decided this is something I want to be a part of. This is something that has major promise. It has done a lot for me.”

Last summer the Lamplighters found their first home in Railroad Village off Mill Street. They opened the Lighthouse last fall. In it the students have televisions, computers and recently they added a pool table.

The Lighthouse isn’t just a place for entertainment, though. It is there that the 150 young men participate in life skill workshops. They are split into two groups – fourth to eighth graders and ninth to 12 grade. 

The life skills curriculum also includes sessions on financial literacy, etiquette for a business setting and effective communicating. Having those skills is especially important for young Black boys, King said.

“The mistakes that they make, if and when they make them, have consequences for the rest of their lives,” he said. “So we can’t afford to prepare for the world that they’re going to be in with the idea that you are going to get a second chance. They don’t have the luxury of having that as an option.”

An annual civil rights trip is another essential part of the Omega Lamplighters’ experience. This year’s trip will take the young men to Chicago where they’ll visit the home of Emmitt Till, a Black boy who was killed in Mississippi while visiting family in 1955. Their five-day bus tour will also make stops in Indianapolis and Louisville for visits to historic African American sites.

In the past, they’ve traveled to the Pettus Bridge, the scene of Bloody Sunday in Alabama in 1965.

Ezekiel and others have called the study of Back history and the civil rights movement eye-opening.

“It’s extremely important because inside of that they can see the power that they walk in, whether they realize it or not,” King said. “If they don’t understand some of the things they should know, then we’ve failed.”

The Lamplighters organization has grown tremendously since its inception. There are at least nine national chapters and other in Florida cities — Pensacola, Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, Fort Pierce and Miami. 

Admittedly, the pace of growth and the organization’s success can sometimes cause a little tunnel vision, King said. But there are times when he has to step back and admire the work that he and other administrators have done.

“I guess when you’re steering the ship, sometimes you don’t have the time to look at how far it has come and how many people you’ve got with you because you’re so busy keeping the ship on a straight path,” King said. “I think that is what happens to me. Every now and then somebody comes and remind me how far I’ve come.”