Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Constable Christoper Bates continues to encourage local kids to pursue their education with the 7th Annual Constable Christopher Bates Scholarship Breakfast April 12 at 9 a.m. at the Port Arthur Civic Center. 

“I established this scholarship to allow students going into criminal justice to have some financial means and have a mentor in myself and hopefully come back to Port Arthur or whatever community they reside in and be productive citizens,” Bates said.   

Since 2015, Bates has been providing mentorship and financial assistance to Jefferson County students entering the field of law enforcement, attempting to bridge the gap between law enforcement and the community.  Since then he has received support from the community to raise funds for the scholarships.

As part of the scholarship Bates will continue to mentor and support students as they journey through their college life. One of those students is Mikayla Hayes, who is set to graduate from Sam Houston State with a degree in criminal justice.

“My senior year, I went to Wilson, so in the morning time during our advisory period they made us apply to scholarships and [Bates] offered one of the scholarships and a lot of people did really apply to it because they weren’t (criminal justice) majors,” Hayes said. “At that time I was not majoring in criminal justice), I was going to go for mechanical engineering but something told me ‘ Just try it out and if you win the scholarship it means you need to do CJ’. So I just applied to see if I was gonna win.”

Hayes is set to complete her criminal justice journey in May and hopes to work out in the field for a year before seeking to apply to law school.

“[Bates] has helped me drastically, just giving me resources I need for jobs and for once I leave school for me to come back to Port Arthur to work for a little bit just to get my foot in the water,” Hayes said.   

The event will feature live music from gospel recording artist Musiqa Tate and guest speaker Patrick Britton. 

The breakfast event also serves as time for the Humanitarian and Young Humanitarian of the Year Award. 

Individual tickets are $25. Scholarships will be announced after the event.