For Russell “Rooster” Valentini, growing up in a large Tamaqua family and attending parochial school there played an important role in what turned out to be a career in which he impacted thousands of lives.

Recently retired from the Allentown School District, Rooster has come to be a household name throughout the Lehigh Valley, a true hero for the great work he did there for 35 years.

As a tireless advocate for homeless students and their families, the Slatington resident recently drew praises of city and county officials for a career which he will tell you was “based on doing the right thing.”

Those values, Russell will admit, were what were instilled in him by his parents, the late Russell and Ann Valentini of Tamaqua, and in the halls of Marian Catholic High School, in Hometown, from which he graduated in 1973.

“It’s what we were taught,” Russell said, adding, “Marian was a big deal to go to. There was so much diversity in the little towns that made up the family, but you were a person, and it (the school) was a community.

“I always felt I was doing the right thing. The way I was raised, we were taught nobody is better than you and you were no better than anyone else. To be raised in a big family, what a jackpot!”

Russell and his five sisters, Sister Lisa, Mary Beth, Jane, Sharon and Christine, are all Marian graduates. Like so many other parents, their dad, also known as “Rooster,” helped make Marian what it is today, working there and also doing volunteer work back in the ’70s.

After attending Penn State where he studied law enforcement and corrections, Russell went on to work in the juvenile probation field; was an outpatient drug and alcohol counselor in Pike County; worked in maximum security at a juvenile detention center in Wescosville; and then found his niche, working in an elementary absenteeism program in the Allentown School District, which eventually led to his longtime role as a “home and school visitor.”

He has been married to the former Becky Moyer of Slatington, who recently retired from the Lehigh County Aging Department. They have two children, Samantha, wife of Corey Barrientos of Bethlehem Township and a teacher in the Bethlehem School District after a few years with Teach for America, and Nicholas, at home, who will be attending graduate school in Pittsburgh. A graduate of Temple University, he currently works for Communities In Schools at Washington Elementary School in the Allentown School District.

It was no ordinary line of work for Russell, who interacted with more than 600 homeless students every year. It was work that helped to change lives and probably saved lives, although, always humble, Russell said while the stories are sad, his work always centered on giving children a chance to make something of themselves.

“There were times when I thought to myself, ‘I’d do this for free,’” he said.

Throughout his career, Russell probably saw it all, explaining his work dealt with “people experiencing homelessness, some in survival mode.”

“It was not what we were used to,” he recalled. “We grew up with our folks encouraging us to make something of ourselves. I found many parents were trying to protect their children from the elements they considered normal. But for these people, for generations, they circled just the wagons.”

He tells the story of one parent who was indignant in telling him, “Who are you to try to put dreams into my kids’ heads? Stop encouraging them.” To that, Russell says, “I would never believe that to be possible.”

He also tells a story about a girl whose family just received a furnished house after years of being homeless and what the girl’s response was when she was asked how she liked her bed.

“And she goes, ‘I don’t know. I’ve never slept in a bed,” Russell related.

He commented, “We can never overestimate what these children have never seen or been exposed to. It’s so important for us to give them a shot. We need to help them star in their own movie.”

Through his work, Russell visited the Salvation Army and other shelters, hotels where families were “being put up,” and even located children under bridges in the city.

“I focused on things like transportation, food sources, basic needs; hygiene, for example, which is a big deal for many of them.”

He added, “I learned quickly that people need bona fide stuff, things like new shoes, even bus tickets. These are generations of families who lived on public assistance. They only knew the magic of checks showing up, so a lot of my work was giving them a learning process about planning.”

He explained his work involved “momentum gathering,” adding, “Giving them (homeless) a taste of things (success).” Often, a constant for parents was shut-off notices and evictions, prompting him to focus on “getting them a look at normalcy. “They need consistency.”

He will tell you about success stories of once-homeless children becoming a teacher or security guard, success stories he says were assisted because he “was blessed to have so many donations.”

“Bad stuff happens to good people,” Russell says. “Most people will rise up, but you gotta hold their hand.

“It’s the old story, when someone gets out there in 30 feet of water, we throw ’em 20 feet of rope and think they have what they need. To me, my philosophy is we got to get ’em to land.”

Russell likened his day-to-day efforts to reach troubled families similar to another role of his in days gone by. He said, “When I was a volunteer with the Tamaqua ambulance, I learned how to deal with people. They didn’t come to us and say they needed to go to the hospital. We went to them. In my work, I always wanted to go to the families, to their ground.”

Having done that for three decades-plus, “Rooster,” the man known for being able to grow the best beard in the Lehigh Valley, with a toothpick always dangling from his lips, has a unique perspective on the labor of love. “I felt so blessed these people welcomed me into their lives, and, for them to welcome me back the next day, it felt so wonderful,” he said.