Continued From Newsletter

Another student, an eighth-grader, said meeting with a mentor in NOAH's Covenant Villas Youth Enrichment program helped him change his whole outlook on life and that he now looks at his future with more hope. He's now playing junior varsity football at an area school. These are just three examples culled by Jeanette Keaton Plair from the 64 relationships developed between mentors and youth in the year-old program created to help young people from 8 to 18 work out various problems.

"I know we can't save them all, but just hearing some of these stories, it makes you feel good," said Plair, who supervises the program. Knowing that success and independence is only a helping hand away, two high school seniors, two college students and three teachers volunteered to be the cranes that would help lift grades, burdens and the spirits of youngsters in the Glades.

The mentors, ages 18 and older, meet in a group setting with young people identified by their school, parents or other adults as having problems. The mentors offer guidance and someone to be confided in by the youth. Plair began writing the program in March 2004 and it started in November. It can accommodate 40 youth at a time. Though 64 have been served, some have moved on, and there is room for others to join the breeding ground for growth and enhancement. And the inspiring stories are not just from the side of the youngsters being guided. Jeffrey Walker, now a student at Palm Beach Atlantic University, was chosen as the program's mentor of the year.

"He spent over 200 hours with kids from November to August," Plair said. "The mentors only have to spend one hour a week with the kids, so you can see how dedicated he was to the program."

So with roughly 45 weeks in the program, Walker's effort more than triples the program requirement. Walker is not in the program this year, but he continues to come by to check on the kids on a regular basis, Plair said. That kind of care is pandemic throughout the program, she added. Plair is energized by the eagerness of the program participants and enjoys working with the children. "Just spending time with the children and learning their ways is special," she said. And she credits her staff member Quentilla Brown for doing an "absolutely wonderful" job. Those ingredients: Eager youth, dedicated mentors and wonderful staff, compose the yeast in the recipe that makes the program and its participants continue to rise.

Return to Newsletter