Congressman Artur Davis made a visit to the CHASM Family Resource Center Monday to meet with the students and offer advice on how the center could obtain federal funding.

Davis spent about an hour meeting with the Rev. Carl Rawls, executive director of CHASM, going over details about what types of grants are available to the center and offering his support. He also took time to meet with the students in the summer program and ask them what they have been learning.

“I feel it is important to have programs like this one at CHASM to help our children fill the summer void,” Davis said. “It gives them a chance to catch up and be ready when school starts. My goal is to do everything in my power to fill that void created when school gets out for the summer.”

Rawls said he has been inviting the congressman to his facility for the past couple of months.

He was thrilled that Davis was finally able to take time from his schedule to make the trip.

“I offered to go meet with him, but then his office called and said (Davis) wanted to come here,” Rawls said.

Davis was on his way to Marion for a town hall meeting when he decided to make a stop in Selma to visit CHASM.

“(Davis) said he had heard about us, and he seemed excited about coming to see our facility,” Rawls said. “He told us he would do everything to help.

“I think we started a good conversation that we can build on.”

Marilyn Rawls, co-founder of CHASM, said the children also seemed very excited about the visit from the congressman.

“They kept asking ‘when is he coming?'” Marilyn Rawls said. “At first, some of them thought the president was coming for a visit. I think they were all excited to meet him.”

The children were noticeably anxious to meet Davis, and when he visited the classroom every student was eager to answer his questions, even if they didn’t exactly know the answer.

When Davis asked if anyone knew what a politician was, one of the students responded by saying, “someone who flies a plane.”

One young girl made the congressman laugh by answering that his job was to “visit all the schools and give them money.”

“She is going to be in charge of getting the schools grants one of these days,” Davis said.

Though his visit to the center was short, the members of CHASM were glad he came by and hopes he can help them keep the facility running for a long time to come.