Rob Flowers helps Buckingham Elementary fourth-grader Halie Elliott, 9, with reading during a life skills class Monday. Flowers began volunteering at Buckingham, where he has a son, after the school and its PTA launched a program to recruit more fathers to volunteer.

Volunteers at Buckingham Elementary are usually women. The school and its PTA are trying to change that, however, with a program designed to bring fathers into the school.

The Buckingham PTA brought the national program Watch Dads of Great Students, or Watch D.O.G.S., to the school this fall. More than 120 fathers showed up at the launch meeting, and about a dozen have since volunteered full days at the school.

The PTA spent about $300 to buy the program’s startup pack, which includes T-shirts, posters, training programs and schedules. Each volunteer goes through a background check before working at the school.

Bringing the program to Buckingham was a chance for the PTA to go beyond its typical scope, PTA President Susan Raffensperger said.

“The program was way more than raising money, way more than bringing a party to the school. It was something that could actually change lives,” Raffensperger said.

Program volunteers typically pitch in with lunch and spend time in classrooms helping students with everything from reading to art.

Buckingham Principal Skip Offenhauser hopes fathers aren’t turned away by the full schedule.

Even if a father can only spend a couple of hours, Offenhauser would be thrilled.

“If you look through schools, you’ll see more women represented in elementary settings than guys,” Offenhauser said. “(The program) is just to show dads there’s nothing to be afraid of. I think there’s a little bit of a fear factor.”

Rob Flowers, father of a Buckingham first-grader, loomed over a table of kindergarten students Monday as the children worked on holiday drawings. The students, eager for his attention, pointed out features of their drawings, from a Santa beard to a fast sled.

Flowers, smiling, was clearly enjoying himself.

Until hearing about the Watch D.O.G.S. program, Flowers rarely volunteered at the schools of his two other children. Since late October, though, he has spent three full days at Buckingham.

Flowers said children greet him by name and often offer up a high-five.

“I feel like I’ve done something with my day,” he said.

As Flowers moved between tables, kindergarten teacher Janet Steele paused to speak about the program’s impact.

Both Steele and her students look forward to visits from dads, she said. Having a father in the room means a lot to her students, even if it is not their dad, Steele said.

“A lot of my guys don’t have a positive male role model in their lives. These dads help provide that,” Steel said.