Grand Island
Nancy Jones
Grand Island TeamMates
2124 N. Lafayette Ave.
Grand Island, NE 68803
Phone: 308-385-5950
Cell: 308-379-2219
Fax: 308-385-5966
Email: njones@gips.org
Mentors Needed
________________________________________GRAND ISLAND --
The TeamMates program in Grand Island is looking for 35 new mentors for the 2008-09 school year.
Nancy Jones, executive director of the TeamMates in Grand Island, said the program received a multi-year federal grant, which required it to get 30 mentors last year and 35 mentors this year.
Thirty mentors were found last year, although the 30th was picked late enough in the school year that a match could not be made.
"We're looking for mentors primarily for sixth-graders and also seventh-graders," Jones said.
Most of the students who need mentoring will come from Barr and Walnut middle schools, as well as a few from Central Catholic, Jones said. All three of the schools were included in the grant application.
Kathy Lewis is serving as the building coordinator at Barr Middle School, while Mike Nichols is serving as the building coordinator at Walnut Middle School.
Ideally, Jones would like to find more than 35 mentors so matches could be made with students at other schools such as Westridge Middle School and Cedar Hollow.
Jones noted that former coaches Tom Osborne of Nebraska and Bill Snyder of Kansas are engaged in a friendly state-to-state competition to see which one can find the most mentors.
She said Grand Island's new mentors would count toward that total.
She issued a written statement from the National Mentoring Partnership, which says there are 15 million youths in the nation who are in need of caring and quality mentors.
The friendly Osborne-Snyder competition is an attempt to close the mentoring gap in Nebraska and Kansas.
The winning team will be announced during the Nebraska versus Kansas State football game on Nov.15.
Other written information released by Jones shows that:
-- Kansas Mentors, led by Snyder and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, is a statewide mentoring initiative that has the mission to provide every young Kansan access to a caring and quality mentor.
-- TeamMates, founded by Tom and Nancy Osborne, is a statewide mentoring program whose mission is to positively impact the world by inspiring youths to reach their full potential through mentoring. Mentors meet one hour per week at the school to provide support and encouragement to youths.
Jones can be reached at 385-5950 at Senior High by people who are interested in the Grand Island TeamMates program.
People also can learn more about the challenge and learn more about mentoring online at www.teammates.org or call (877) 531-8326.
By Harold Reutter
The Grand Island Independent
Posted Aug 24, 2008 @ 10:53 PM
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To check the scoreboard for the Coaches Challenge between Kansas and Nebraska go to www.teammates.org.
