“Step-Up”, spend more time together!

Bill Sheldon is the pastor at the Brownsville Methodist Church and lives in Springfield. He was mentoring Corey through the Let’s Do Lunch Mentoring Program during the lunch hour at Elm Hill Elementary School in Springfield for about a year. However, both Corey and Bill wanted to spend more time together; therefore Bill requested permission to “step up” to our PALS mentoring program which would allow them to spend more time participating in activities in the community nights, weekends and other out-of-school times. The process was simple, he contacted our office, had his fingerprints taken, underwent an FBI Criminal Background check, local and state screenings and the process was complete. Bill was then approved to meet with Corey and participate in some exciting activities.

Last June, Bill, Corey and a high school student in our mentoring programs, had the opportunity to join with the 21st Century After-School Programs in a trip to the New England Aquarium in Boston. They had a terrific time and it was an experience that neither youth will ever forget. They especially enjoyed the penguins, ugly fish and the Imax Theatre.

Also in June, Bill served as “Pastor of the Day” for the Springfield High School Alumni Association’s annual festivities. A highlight of the weekend for Corey was riding in the parade in the special “Pastor of the Day” automobile. Corey and Bill both enjoyed a day in the limelight as dignitaries for the event and are looking forward to many more exciting adventures in the future.

Proud as a mentor can be… graduation day:

Here is a mentoring story from our Newsletter last year at this time:

Rosina Zaretzki began mentoring Trisha in September of 1999 through the Let’s Do Lunch Mentoring Program, Trisha was in the 6th grade. Rosina has been a faithful and reliable mentor during all of that time and has come to the school for lunch with her mentee, once a week, throughout her middle and high school years. An avid mentor, Rosina has taken advantage of several training opportunities and workshops and is very committed to mentoring.

After several years in the Lunch Mentoring program, the pair decided that they would like to spend more time together; therefore, Rosina made application to join our PALS program. This program incorporates many components of the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Mentoring Program. Mentors undergo a full background check, are carefully screened and checked and on successful completion, can then spend time together out in the community. An additional feature for high school students in the mentoring programs is that each year they visit their mentor in the workplace for lunch and a “job shadow”, tour of the company. Dufresne-Henry, now Stantec, Inc, an engineering firm located in North Springfield welcomed the youth to a pizza lunch and has supported mentoring for several years. Many of their employees have part icipated in the mentoring programs. Another long-term mentoring partnership through Dufresne-Henry has been with Peter Andrews mentoring Gary, for the past several years.

Trisha’s future plans are not set in concrete at the present time but include possibilities of the continuation of her education through the local Community College, once she has decided what career(s) she might like to pursue. Trisha is appreciative of all the time that Rosina has spent with her and would like to become a mentor at one of the local elementary schools. She and Rozina have developed a close relationship and also plan to keep in touch with each other in the future. Rosina is also planning to mentor another youth.

~Written by Marie Gelineau

Mentor-Mentee blogging

One thing that we hope this blog will accomplish is to have our mentors and mentees join in blogging with us. If you search the internet and blogs you won't find many mentor-mentee blogs. True, there are some that have to do with mentoring in a business, but not much to be found for students in kindergarten through twelfth grade.

A couple of great examples though are the blogs and websites belonging to Cabrini Connections, a tutoring and mentoring program serving kids living in Chicago's Cabrini-Green public housing project. Besides having a blog named Cabriniblog for the students and mentors and staff, they also recently added a blog for their Cabrini writing group.

One very interesting blog entry is from a man named Leo Hall who was a mentee way back in 1973! He writes about the effect his mentor had on him :

I now have 2 sons, and am a movie producer and director. Alot of what I do with people is what Dan used to do with me, and that is mentor them. Teach them how to make good decisions and trust and believe in themselves....
[and] I wanted to say this, keep your head up and never forget where you came from and the people that got you there.

So when you have a chance - check out some of these sites and if you want to know more about telling your story here on the Vermont Mentoring Blog send us an email at trv.mentoring@gmail.com or contact Marie Gelineau at mgelineau@springfield.k12.vt.us.