Past and current mentors at a thank your mentor reception. (Photo submitted)
WESTFIELD – The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Westfield celebrated National Thank Your Mentor Day with a mentor reunion at the Club. Past and present mentors were invited to participate in a small reception, where they enjoyed light refreshments, a raffle, collections of old photographs, and time to reminisce about their experiences as mentors.
A typical day for a mentor and mentee usually involves activities like homework help, board games, gym time and just hanging out and talking. Boys & Girls Club Child Care Coordinator Maribel Marrero, the woman who coordinates the Club’s mentoring program says that, “I’m looking for these kids to have someone they can trust, someone that will build up their self-esteem, and empower them to succeed.”
Children benefit from relationships with their mentors in many different ways. Statistically, 38% of the children at the Boys and Girls Club are growing up in single parent households. In these situations the mentors focus on building a friendship with the Club member, so that the child knows there is a responsible adult in the world that they can trust.
Mentors benefit from this type of one-to-one relationship with a child as well. Ashley, one of the Club’s mentors describes the experience as both rewarding and humbling. “Kids match and mirror what they see, and you need to be something worth mirroring. You need to act as a role model for these kids, because they aren’t used to someone respecting and guiding them”.
Ashley said she was originally drawn to the mentoring program from her own experiences growing up. She believes that children need to know there is someone out there that cares about them, who isn’t obligated to care in the way their parents are. “Your parents are supposed to care; a kid needs to feel like there is someone out there that cares just because they want to”.
Angel, another mentor at the Club commented that, “growing up I wanted a person to look up to, and I found that person at the local Y. My counselors treated me like a friend. I mentor now because I want to impact kids in the same way that my counselors impacted me”.
A third mentor was overheard saying, “Some kids don’t have the best home life or the most enjoyable school environment, and sometimes they just need someone to talk to. I want to be that person; I want to make a difference in that child’s life. If coming to see a child once a week, for one hour can make that difference, and that’s all it really takes, I’ll be that person. It’s a very rewarding experience for both the mentor and the mentee”.
The mentoring program at the Boys and Girls Club is funded by a grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention through Boys and Girls Clubs of America. The Boys & Girls Club is also a chartered Police Activities/Athletic League recruiting local law enforcement officers to serve as mentors.
The Boys and Girls Club is always looking for more mentors. To find out how to get involved as a mentor or to find out how your child can become a mentee, please contact the Club’s Director of Operations, Kellie Brown at 413.562.2301, or visit our website at www.bgcwestfield.org
Karissa St. Pierre is the Assistant Development and Marketing Coordinator at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Westfield
