Teen Mentor Program: RAL Teens Help Out Local Kids

By Hannah Morgan

“It [Teen Mentoring] makes me feel good to help the kids, who deserve fun and support,” Ashley Wingate 11 said of her volunteer experience with the Teen Mentor Program.

The Teen Mentor Program pairs local high school age volunteers with elementary school students who have been identified by their teachers as needing a mentor due to an unbalanced home life or difficulty making friends.

Not only do the mentees benefit from the emotional support, the mentors benefit from the increased leadership confidence and constructive relationship with their mentee.

“It feels good to give back to the community, to kids that need help,” Brandon Mathews 12 said.

The mentors travel once a week to the school of their mentee and meet in a designated spot, like the playground, the library, or the guidance office, to do activities. Depending on the school, activities can be board games, making friendship bracelets, coloring, or tossing around a football outside. All supplies are provided by the Teen Mentor Program, unless the mentor wants to bring something extra.

Teen Mentor Program is funded by the Cowlitz Substance Abuse Coalition (CSAC), which was created in 1989 to combine agencies resources and ideas to prevent substance abuse in our community. CSAC is funded by private and government grants.

The Teen Mentor Program also hosts group activities. During Christmas time there is the annual gingerbread house making, and during Easter time there is an egg hunt and party. Last year, because of some extra grant money, all of the mentors and mentees were able to go to the zoo together.

“I’m looking forward to making the gingerbread houses,” said Averie Bogner 12, “I’ve heard how much fun they are!”

Each high school also hosts monthly lunches to talk about progress with the mentees and to prepare activities for them. RAL currently supplies the most mentors [35] to the program, in comparison with Kelso and MM, a source of great pride for our high school coordinator Mrs. Opgrande.

“I’m super proud of our mentors in general at RAL. They are all around fantastic kids and role models. RAL doesn’t always get positive representation, but this really does reflect positively on our school,” Mrs. Opgrande said.

For those who are interested in becoming a part of this program, see Mrs. Opgrande or Ms. Kochis in the Guidance Office. You must be a sophomore or older, and there will be an application and interview process.