What can one person do to make the world a better place? What could you do?

This man is showing us all.

Joseph Straws III, a 1995 graduate of Sumner Academy of Arts and Science, has been walking the halls of Kansas City, Kansas, public schools ever since graduation as a mentor/volunteer to help put young lives on the right path. On Tuesday, he issued a call to the entire community to join him. Some 75 answered the call, at an initial meeting at Mt. Carmel Church of God in Christ.

Straws was stirred to action by the ghastly scissors stabbing a week prior of a student at Schlagle High School — who was, ironically enough, waiting in line to pass through a metal detector at the school’s entrance.

Straws was further inspired by national news of a “Dads on Duty” group of volunteers that formed to patrol a high school in Shreveport, Louisiana, after fights at a school there led to the arrest of 22 students. Reports say the dads’ presence stopped fighting in its tracks.

Straws wants similar results here, starting with Tuesday night’s organizational meeting involving school officials, law enforcement, civic organizations already working in KCK schools and potential volunteers. He hopes to get enough enlistees signed up and background-checked to have three to five adults in each of the district’s five high schools and seven middle schools by the restart of school in January.

Volunteers in what Straws is calling the Men for Change Community Crisis Coalition will work in shifts, and contribute whatever time they feel they can. Every hour helps.

Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools has its own anti-violence effort, called Enough is Enough. But they’re happy to see Straws’ effort and to assist it.

A businessman, family man, music man and man of God — a licensed minister, he was already preaching back in his senior year in high school — he’s well suited to lead what he hopes will be an army of caring adults.

“At the end of the day, they’re great kids,” Straws says. “They just need some direction and some love, to be honest with you.”

Area institutions are standing with Straws, which is critical. Unified Government incoming Mayor Tyrone Garner is a friend and has pledged his support, Straws notes.

Measurements must be taken to prove the volunteers’ time is well spent, so Straws plans to chart test scores, violence, suspensions and what teachers and administrators think of the effort. Nor can it be a flash in the pan if it’s to make a difference, he realizes. But this is a guy who’s proven he’s in it for the long term.

In decades of journalism I’ve had the privilege of meeting untold thousands of good people. Joseph Straws III is one of the best I’ve ever come across. I’d follow him into battle. Others clearly feel the same.

If you’re in Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, I urge you to support him.

If you’re anywhere else in the world, I encourage you to emulate him.