Lorraine Gerling must wonder if it’s Reverse Day and everything is backwards.
As the program manager of Sidekicks Mentoring, she is usually in the position of trying to find community volunteers to be mentors to local children. This time, however, it’s the other way around.
“We need some help,” she said, remarking at the irony of the situation with a laugh. “We have two volunteers who have come to the program looking to be matched with a younger girl ages six to nine.”
The two mentors-to-be made this specific request because it is a family match of a mother and her daughter who is eight. The youngest girl that Sidekicks has still waiting to be matched is 12. The program doesn’t generally have a lot of girls in it to begin with, she continued.
“I’ve got this huge gap, and these volunteers that I don’t want hanging around just waiting for too long.”
That’s why Gerling is putting out a general appeal to the public, especially to families with younger girls who could benefit from mentors, to contact her and make this connection.
“We don’t typically do a lot of recruiting when it comes to clients. We typically have a fairly decent sized waiting list and the kids are waiting for a while. It’s very rare that we are in this position.”
Sidekicks works to match people with school-aged children between six and 16 years of age. The objective is to provide positive mentors and role models. It currently has approximately 20 mentoring relationships that it has arranged and is monitoring. Group mentoring is a possibility as well. Gerling said that she sometimes arranges group activities for this purpose.
“For example, during the summertime, we have just been hopping, doing all kinds of activities and events for the kids in the program. Because most of the time, it’s in the daytime and the parents are not available.”
These activities are attended by staff and volunteers who are called group mentors because they are not necessarily mentoring on a one-to-one basis.
She ended by saying that she would be very pleased if this plea to the public also resulted in other children coming forward that could benefit from the program.
Call 780-459-6666 or visit www.stalbertcivc.com for more information about Sidekicks or other volunteer programs.
