A well-known proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child,” mirrors the opportunities provided to children who are enrolled in New Opportunities Fun Friends Mentoring program. Both children and their mentors benefit from mutual friendships, and program participants like 10 year-old Caleb, 12 year-old Marissa, and 8 year-old Preston say they like having a mentor for many reasons.
They’ve enjoyed various activities with their mentors including trips to the Rec Center, watching movies, eating out, or just hanging out. If their mentors went missing from their lives, the kids say, they wouldn’t like it one bit.
Brittany Riesenberg, who mentors Marrisa, says she used to be in the kid’s shoes, and now she’s a mentor herself. She says that she can really see how much of an influence she has on their lives from academics to social skills, and though many children may feel intimidated to be paired up with a mentor at first, Preston, Caleb, and Marissa have some words of advice.
Adults who are eighteen years or older can sign up to be a mentor. The Fun Friends Mentoring program currently has 8 children waiting to be paired up with a mentor in counties that the program serves which include Sac County, Audubon County where two children are in need of mentors and in both Carroll and Guthrie Counties there are three children waiting to be paired up. To become a mentor, or for more information, contact Mentoring Coordinator Regina Angandja at 712-792-9266 ext. 602 or via email at rangandja[at]newopp.org. Mentors do receive program training and should be able to offer at least 4 hours of their time per month in order to make a difference in a child’s life.
