Nighttime Golf Tournament

Join us for the 5th Annual Shot in the Dark

Friday September 21, 2007 at 6:00 p.m.

A Fund Raiser for The Starfish Initiative Mentoring Program in Springfield VT will be held at the Crown Point Country Club.
This “scramble” format, and the fact that the play is in the dark on 6 of the most centralized holes, make this event fun and exciting for all players regardless of ability (no one will see your duffs!) The tees, fairway and boundaries, and greens are marked with glow sticks, with a lit tiki torch at each hole. The rest is taken care of by glow-in-the-dark balls, which provide a visual show. You should note that golf carts are not allowed at night for safety concerns. Event begins at 6:30 pm with dinner.

Please contact Marie Gelineau at mgelineau@springfield.k12.vt.us
or call 802.885.8314
for more information and to find out how to sign up.

If you don't play golf we would still love to have you there as a volunteer.

And Now a Word From Our Director ...

Since we have been blogging for an entire 5 days now, we thought it would be a good time to give you a clearer picture of what we actually do.  So our director, Marie Gelineau, wrote up the following overview of our group:

Each year we are contacted by folks looking for mentors for youngsters at their schools and that’s our biggest challenge. We always have a long waiting list of children waiting for mentors. We coordinate 5 “arms” of mentoring, thus the name “Starfish Initiative” for our programs:

Let’s Do Lunch Mentoring Program (LDL) is a school-based mentoring program in which mentors meet with their assigned youth, one day a week, during lunch time, only on-campus, and only during the school year. Some mentors and youth are in their seventh year in the mentoring relationship. Mentors are provided for children grades 1 to 12.

Lunch and More is an extension of the LDL program and was developed in response to requests from mentors and youth who wanted to spend more time together. In addition to meeting at the school each week, mentors that successfully complete the RightFoot screening process can also meet with their assigned youth under the auspices of the Springfield Club. Mentors and youth can participate in all the activities sponsored by the Club or in other youth programs supervised activities.

PALS (Promoting Assets that Lead to Success) follows the Big Brothers/Big Sisters model. Mentors are carefully screened including an FBI background check and driving record check and are matched with a child that has similar interests. Mentors can meet the youth at school for lunch as well as spend time with the child out in the community. Mentors are encouraged to meet with the youth for three to five hours weekly.

SPARK (Seniors Promoting Asset building & Resiliency in Kids) is a program with senior citizens as mentors, “grand mentors” mentor pre-school children in a supervised classroom setting. Mentors also connect with parents or guardians to begin a relationship. The mentor may continue to mentor a particular child when he/she enters kindergarten and in future years.

Just Now is a pre-charge restorative justice program. For the past four years, we have matched youth that are enrolled in this program with adults in the “PALS” mentoring program. One of our big successes is that several youth are matched with mentors and none of them have committed a second offense. This speaks to the benefits of a young person having a caring adult mentor. Experience is fostered with a positive role model and it provides an opportunity for the youth to know that their community cares about them.

These programs promote positive connections between businesses, schools and the community as well as career awareness opportunities for students. We also provide an opportunity for students to visit their mentor’s workplace for lunch and a job shadow experience before the end of each school year.

These programs are currently financially supported by Springfield Lions and Rotary Clubs, Union Street, Elm Hill and Park Street P.T.A.s, Springfield Savings & Loan Assoc., Merchants Bank, Bryant Credit Union, United Way of Southern Windsor County, Springfield Police Association, and by grants from Agency of Human Services, Safe and Drug-free Schools & Communities Program. Other supporters are Springfield Public Schools, Springfield Prevention Coalition and the Southern State Correctional Facility who provides fingerprinting services for mentor background checks. And as always we are supported by people like YOU.

Thank you for your support!
Marie Gelineau, Executive Director

For information about getting a mentor or becoming a mentor contact Marie at TRVBEP at (802) 885-8314.  

If you can't become a mentor please consider a donation to help support our efforts.  The "Donate" area on the right panel of our blog will allow you to donate securely online.  If you prefer,  you can also mail a donation to TRV, 307 South Street, Springfield, VT 05156

Celebrate Earth Day, Green-up Day, Mentoring and Our Community

Free Event at the Commons
Springfield, Vermont
Saturday, May 5th, 2007 from 12:00 Noon to 4:00 P.M.

Everyone is invited to help clean up the Commons in Springfield by planting, raking and painting the "warming Hut". There will be musical entertainment provided by local musician Brad Veysey and friends; grilled food for all; and fun activities for children and adults alike. Free T-Shirts will be handed out to all due to the generous support of the Springfield Savings and Loan, Chittenden Bank and Merchants Bank.

We hope you can come and help us celebrate our community as we work together.

Bring a vegetable to add to our salad if possible.

For more information please contact Vanessa Stern, Windsor County Partners at Vanessa@wcpartners.org or (802) 674-5101
OR
Marie Gelineau, Three River Valley Business Education Partnership at mgelineau@springfield.k12.vt.us or (802) 885-8314

This event is sponsored by the Windsor/Windham Mentoring Collaborative with the generous support from the Vermont Community Fund and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.

Southern Vermont Mentoring

Hello Everyone-

This is our first post at Vermont Mentoring. This blog belongs to the mentoring program, Starfish Initiative, created by the Three River Valley Business-Education Partnership in Springfield, Vermont. We serve the following areas of Southeastern Vermont:

WINDHAM NORTHEAST SUPERVISORY UNION
serving Bellows Falls, Rockingham, Westminster, Grafton, and Saxtons River

WINDSOR SOUTHWEST SUPERVISORY UNION
serving Chester, Londonderry, Andover, Cavendish, and Proctorsville

SPRINGFIELD SUPERVISORY UNION
serving Springfield, Perkinsville, Weathersfield, and Baltimore

RUTLAND-WINDSOR SUPERVISORY UNION
serving Ludlow and Mount Holly

We sponsor mentoring programs that help children realize their potential by partnering with local businesses and business people.

We are hoping that this blog will not only let everyone know what is going on in our programs and local area; but also that we can inspire some mentors and mentees to guest blog and tell us your experiences with mentoring. And who knows – maybe some of you will go on to start your own blogs!

In coming posts we’ll let you know what we have accomplished and hope to accomplish in the future. We have some events coming up that we want everyone to know about as well.

So welcome to our blog – we hope you will add us to your blog roll if you have one; subscribe to our posts using a service like Bloglines ; or just stop by now and then to see what is going on.

If you are a local mentor or mentee and would like to tell about your experiences with mentoring - please email us at trv.mentoring@gmail.com and we can contact you about how to join in.

We also welcome your comments and suggestions, please click the COMMENTS link below. Note that our comments are moderate and you will not see your comment posted immediately.