Six years ago I met Ashley. The G.R.I.P. (Growing Relationships in Pairs) mentoring coordinator in our local school introduced us. Ashley was a second grader when we met, and though she’s now now in seventh grade, we still get together for a half our once a week at her school while it’s in session.
We meet outside of school sometimes, too. We do things like going out to lunch for her birthday, baking treats for our families before Christmas, attending the high school plays and the Grand March before prom, watching the Anne of Green Gables videos together. One sultry summer evening, we sat through a tornado warning in our basement. We’ve attended some G.R.I.P. sponsored activities: roller-skating, the annual carnival, and our favorite an afternoon at the butterfly and horticultural garden in a nearby university town. That’s where we took the picture of the pond above. Later, when we saw our reflections in the photo, it became a favorite, too.
Because January is National Mentoring Month, Ashley and I, along with the G.R.I.P. coordinator, were interviewed at the local radio station this past Monday. During the interview, the coordinator said their program serves over a hundred children in our county and another fifty kids are on the waiting list. Fifty kids. In just one county. Take that number times the one hundred counties in my state and take that number times fifty states, and you have a crowd of kids waiting for an adult to make a difference in their lives.
If that number disturbs you, consider becoming a mentor in your town, even though you’re busy, even though you don’t think you have time. Seven years ago, I wasn’t sure I had time in my life for a little girl. Now I can’t imagine my life without Ashley, a seventh grader who maturing into a lovely young woman, being part of it.
Ashley and I aren’t mentee and mentor anymore. We’re friends for life. You need a friend like that. And somewhere, there’s a child who needs a friend like that, too. Is it you?
