Meet our runners: Chris Collier

For the third year in a row, Mass Mentoring Partnership is honored to be an official charity partner of the B.A.A. Boston Marathon® on April 15. We want you to meet our amazing runners. Let’s go Team MMP!

Runner:  Christopher Collier
Longest run to date: Bermuda Triangle Challenge January 2013 (3 days: 1 mile, 10k, Full Marathon)
Favorite song to listen to while running: Chariots of Fire
Favorite post-run snack: Gatorade. But after a marathon race all I really want is a messy bacon cheeseburger and a beer.

1. What inspired you to run the 2013 Boston Marathon for MMP? Running is a great way to stay in shape.  It is also a great way to make new friends.  Running along the coalition path with all the others is a very inspiring time.  Hundreds of charity runners are on the path. Waking up early on Saturday morning to go run 10-15 miles in the cold.  Some think we are crazy, but they just haven’t experienced the reward at the end of the trail. Last year, I was completing one of my longer training runs and was on the back-end of the run, eagerly looking for my finish mark.  I was gaining on a runner and as I got closer to him I realized that he only had one foot and was running with a prosthetic running device.  I don’t know how he lost his limb but I do know that the courage and strength it takes for someone to be able to lose a limb and then have the ambition to get back to running is powerful beyond measure.  Whenever I am running out of energy on my runs I just think back to this moment and realize, if he could do it, then I really have no good excuse to quit.
2. What has been the most rewarding experience of your training and/or fundraising so far? I very much enjoy the support during the races.  Strangers will scream for you, hand you water or snacks.  During the 2012 Boston Marathon people had their garden hoses on all day for you to run through.  It is really humbling to see all the support the community gives.
3. Tell me about your mentee! My Mentee is Jahmir. He is 11-years-old. I have recently graduated from the program due to a change in location.  I spent more than 2.5 years spending weekends with him just enjoying time together in a nearby arcade, Boston Common, or forcing him to clear a fear of heights and check out the observation lounge at the top of the Prudential.  As many mentors know, the first few months are not easy and there is usually a large barrier that must be broken one brick at a time. However, once I gained his trust, I befriended an energetic, athletic, happy-go-lucky adolescent.  I can tell what he enjoys most is just having someone to hang out with, joke around with, and be a little rambunctious with.
4. What do you think is the most important thing a mentor can do for a child? Be patient and sometimes all you have to do is listen. Be an outlet. Be a friend and not a parent.
5. What is the best piece of advice a mentor can give? Being in a mentoring program is not all sunshine and rainbows. There will be struggles along the way, but if you are patient with the relationship, there is a light that shines brighter than any other at the end of the tunnel.
6. Complete this sentence: When I finish the Marathon, I will feel…Exhausted, but very proud.

If you would like to read more about Christopher or make a donation to his fundraising, please visit http://www.razoo.com/story/Boston-Marathon-2013-1

Program highlight: Falmouth VIPS

Guest blogger Tracey Crago is the director of the Falmouth VIPS program

Falmouth Public Schools, through the Falmouth Volunteers In Public Schools (VIPS) Program, offers school-based mentoring programs for students in grades K-12. VIPS started the program in 1994, in response to a request from elementary school adjustment counselors who found that some students could benefit from a one-on-one relationship with a kind, caring adult. The result was the launch of Project RISE (Raising Interest and Self-Esteem), geared for students in grades K-8. A mentoring program for high school-aged students followed three years later. Today, there are 78 students matched with an adult mentor and the focus of the program remains true to its original aim: to improve a student’s self-esteem. The program does not focus on academics (VIPS has other volunteer-based programs to support students struggling academically); rather, the mentors work with the students to build self-confidence and support them socially and emotionally by serving as a reliable, trusting, caring friend.

As a school-based program, mentors and mentees meet weekly throughout the school year, but do not meet outside of school or during breaks. To address what many might consider a negative of school-based mentoring, the VIPS program organizes opportunities throughout the school year for mentors and mentees to spend quality time together outside of the school. For example, through grant support, VIPS sponsors educational field trips to local attractions, giving matches a chance to spend quality time together in the presence of other matches. In addition, VIPS mentors meet monthly to share advice and interact, while hearing from local healthcare and community professionals on topics and issues relevant to students in today’s world. Recent examples include: the role of social media in relationships (positive and negative), the effects of grief and trauma on children, recognizing signs of depression, using children’s literature to communicate with your mentee, the importance of closure in the mentor-mentee relationship, food and nutrition tips, and more.

One of the biggest successes of the VIPS mentoring program is match longevity. Mentors are asked to commit to a school year when matched with their mentees. The majority of VIPS mentors stay with the same mentee for two or more years, with some matches lasting for as long as eight years, until the student graduates from high school. Multi-year relationships help students with several transitions:  school to school, social and emotional adjustments associated with maturity, and navigating the pressure from peers to “fit in.”

One great story is that of Laura, who is a sophomore at Colby-Sawyer College who keeps in touch with her mentor, Barbara. They were matched when Laura was in 4^th grade and stayed together until Laura graduated from Falmouth High School in 2011. Laura met Barbara when she was 10 years old. “I remember my guidance counselor bringing me into the room next to the cafeteria to meet her and have lunch with her,” recalls Laura. “Little did I know that we would be spending the next eight years worth of weekly lunches together, nor did I know how incredibly wonderful they would be.”

“My mentor and I have grown so close. [Barbara] has become much more than just a friend; she has become part of my family. My mentor is an amazing woman who has impacted my life in such an incredible way. I will never forget that she has always been a part of that pathway of life for me.”

VIPS mentors range in age from early 20s to mid-70s. They are all young at heart! Recently, VIPS helped launch a peer mentoring program, matching Falmouth High School seniors with younger students in grades 5-8. Middle school and junior high students can be tougher to match because they are worried about what their peers think and perceive that having a mentor will make them stand out. The peer mentor program has changed this thinking completely! Because the younger students look up to the high school mentors, they view their peer mentors as “cool” role models. Much of the success of the Peer Mentor program can be attributed to the fact that it is run as an independent study course and students receive academic credits for participating. This built-in accountability has ensured continuity, reliability, and consistency—so critical to a match.

You can find out more about our program by visiting our website, www.falmouthvips.org or by contacting Sharon Sodekson, VIPS Mentor Programs leader, at mentor@falmouth.k12.ma.us or calling (508) 548-1621.

Meet our runners: Jeff Russell

For the third year in a row, Mass Mentoring Partnership is honored to be an official charity partner of the B.A.A. Boston Marathon® on April 15. We want you to meet our amazing runners. Let’s go Team MMP!

Favorite song to listen to while running: James Taylor’s “How Sweet it is to be loved by you” (Boston Live version)
Favorite post-run snack: Cheerios with almond milk

1. What inspired you to run the 2013 Boston Marathon for MMP? Hundreds of mentees/mentors – I receive remarkable feedback on a regular basis on the life-changing impact a mentor has on a child/young or adult.
2. What has been the most rewarding experience of your training and/or fundraising so far? Having our amazing, remarkable, committed, passionate, caring and most beautiful Old Colony Y mentoring employees thank me for supporting MMP and our mentoring efforts! (Jeff is the chief operating officer at the Old Colony Y in Brockton)
3. Tell me about your mentee! Iraimi is a remarkable young woman who had experienced being homeless at a young age and was with the Y in our mentoring and housing programs.  She graduated from Wheaton College this past spring and, after a highly competitive, nation-wide process, was selected as a Watson Fellow.  As a Watson Fellow, she is now touring four countries this year – Scotland, Senegal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka – to study youth 
4. development work, mentoring and developmental assets.  All because she was mentored.  So exciting!
5. What do you think is the most important thing a mentor can do for a child? Listen and be totally committed to the mentees while you are with them.
6. What is the best piece of advice a mentor can give? Have confidence in yourself, take calculated risks and set high goals.
7. Complete this sentence: When I finish the Marathon, I will feel…Very sore and tired HA! Actually, I will feel quite proud and fulfilled I was able to help in a small way an agency fulfill its mission. Mass Mentoring Partnership is the best mentoring advocacy group in the world! I see their efforts and outcomes daily!

If you would like to read more about Jeff or make a donation to his fundraising, visit http://www.razoo.com/story/Jeff-Russell-1

Impacting Roxbury Community College’s Mentoring for Success program

Roxbury Community College’s (RCC) Mentoring for Success, which supports first-generation college students at RCC with one-to-one mentoring relationships spanning two semesters, has hosted three Ambassadors over the span of four years. The successes of their program illustrate how hosting an Ambassador can take a mentoring program from newly created to successfully operating. The positions have changed from year-to-year with the program’s development and growth, and have built on the work of the previous Ambassador: from research and development, to program implementation and evaluation, to continued expansion and revamping the program to fit the students’ and colleges’ needs.

Lise Hagen, the Ambassador at RCC from 2010-12, was responsible for a wide range of duties, including recruiting, training and matching mentors; developing a mentor orientation and training; providing match support to ensure the continuity of the relationships; and more.

Elizabeth Clark, director of student life and student engagement/supervisor of the Mentoring for Success Program, says that determining project scopes for the Ambassadors are based on evaluations of the program throughout the year. They track target goals in areas like mentor and mentee recruitment, match retention, match satisfaction, and improvement in mentees’ personal and academic development. These factors help them create new target goals for the upcoming year to help strengthen the program or expand in a previously untapped area.

She says their Ambassadors have been key to the growth of the mentoring program. ”It has been built from the ground up with the help of Ambassadors and Mass Mentoring. Our Ambassadors have continued to meet and exceed their goals, or have created alternative solutions for goals that were met with challenges.”

Elizabeth says that they’ve continued to apply for Ambassadors due to the continue success in the expansion of their program. “We receive ongoing positive feedback from our faculty, staff, and students involved in the program, as well as support from the RCC community. Ambassadors have proven to have the personal capabilities and external support from MMP to continue elevating the program.”

For program directors thinking of applying to host an Ambassador, Elizabeth recommends finding the balance between providing structure to help the Ambassador start, and flexibility so he or she can bring his or her own ideas.

“Regardless if you have a successful mentoring program or one just starting, it’s important to keep an open mind to the potential an Ambassador can create for your program when you work together.”

Program highlight: Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative

Guest blogger Joceline Fidalgo is a Highland Street Corps Ambassador of Mentoring at Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative

The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) is a nonprofit community-based planning and organizing program rooted in the Roxbury and North Dorchester neighborhoods of Boston. Formed in 1984, residents of the Dudley Street area came together to revive their neighborhood, which was devastated by arson, disinvestment, neglect and redlining practices.

The mission of DSNI is to empower Dudley residents to organize, plan for, create and control a vibrant, diverse and high-quality neighborhood in collaboration with community partners. DSNI focuses on three strategic areas to help revitalize the neighborhood: community economic development, leadership development and collaboration, and youth opportunities and development.

In an effort to offer Dudley area youth better opportunities, DSNI piloted its first mentoring program, Stronger Leaders Brighter Future. The program officially started during National Mentoring Month (January) 2013 with a kick-off Celebration on Jan. 12. I organized the fun and creative event where mentors and mentees had the chance to meet each other and get to know one another while participating in a range of activities and eating lunch together. There were silly games, ice-breakers, team-building exercises as well as a general overview of the mentoring program. 12 mentors and seven mentees spent about three hours together learning about each other and the mentoring program.

The celebration was a great experience where mentors and mentees were able to interact before being matched. At the end of the event, all the mentors and mentees were asked to fill out a form which included questions around their interests and asked them if there was anyone they felt a particular connection to or could imagine being matched up with. These forms and my observations during the event helped us make 14 matches to date! The event taught me the importance of making sure that all mentors and mentees feel like they are part of a larger group of matches. When the matches are comfortable with each other, I believe they are more likely to reach out to each other for resources and tips and not rely solely on the program coordinator for support.

After just a few weeks of meeting with their mentors, youth have shared that having a mentor has given them the opportunity to get to know an adult from the community on a personal level and feel more supported on a daily basis. Once matches have had more time to develop their relationship, youth will begin working with their mentors on identifying goals they would like to achieve and setting up a plan on how to achieve them.

Meet our runners: Alex Brown

For the third year in a row, Mass Mentoring Partnership is honored to be an official charity partner of the B.A.A. Boston Marathon® on April 15. We want you to meet our amazing runners. Let’s go Team MMP!

Runner:  Alex Brown
Most recent marathon:  Rose Bowl Marathon
Favorite song to listen to while running: Something about the drums in most of Animal Collective’s music works great to pick up pace when I’ve been dogging it. Two songs that have made it through the constant and strenuous playlist vetting process are on the extreme ends of the spectrum. The first is Toots and the Maytals doing “Louie, Louie.”  I don’t particularly love reggae, but that song always puts me in a mood and rhythm  My second must-have song is Fugazi’s “Waiting Room.” You know, you gotta get a little pumped up too. LCD Soundsytem. Pretty much anything James Murphy/they do is great for longer runs. I could do this question all day. Maybe I’m just jogging so I can listen to music…
Favorite post-run snack: Rotisserie chicken. Lots, and lots of rotisserie chicken.

1. What inspired you to run the 2013 Boston Marathon for MMP? It was a perfect culmination of personal goals. I needed to lose weight so I started running. I played college football but had really let my health slip since I stopped playing. My grandfather died last April, which was troubling in general…as deaths usually are. What really hit me though was the adverse conditions my grandfather had to live under the last decade of his life due to being overweight and leading a sedentary lifestyle. It was a real catalyst for me to join a gym and change my lifestyle. Over the next three months I lost about thirteen pounds (not that I was counting each one or anything). One of the producers on the TV show I work on was telling me about her workout routine. She jogs for forty-five minutes three times a week. Not being one to step down from a challenge, I jogged for forty-five minutes that night. I did almost four miles, and more importantly, I had a crazy sense of fulfillment. I went home right after my first run and signed up for a half marathon that was three months out. From the point of my grandfather dying to the morning of my first half marathon, I lost thirty pounds. While I was, and sadly still am, overweight, there is a fire and drive inside of me that I feel like running ignited. I was on the phone with my parents right after finishing my first official half marathon, and I told them that afternoon, I am going to finish the Boston Marathon this year. Why? Why a full marathon? Why the Boston Marathon? The answer for me is simple. Set your goals out of your comfort zone, and if you have dedication, drive, and an intense focus, you can accomplish things you never imagined possible for yourself. To run a marathon, to even have that idea, would be and was comical for most people when I told them. To pick the most prestigious marathon in the country, widely considered to be one of the most difficult, well that’s just lunacy. My inspiration? I could rattle off a list: Health. Raising money for a great cause. Proving others wrong. Proving myself wrong. Most importantly, my inspiration is the concrete proof that there will be triumph over any obstacle as long as there is extreme dedication and focus and your motives and drive are pure.
2. What has been the most rewarding experience of your training and/or fundraising so far? I can answer this one a lot more succinctly than the last. The most rewarding part of this entire endeavor is telling someone I WILL be finishing the Boston Marathon this year, and knowing that’s fact.
3. What is your experience with mentoring? I have both received and given extensive mentoring as an Eagle Scout. I think the most rewarding mentor relationship I had came from when I played football in college. Being from Texas, it was rare that I had family able to come up and watch my games in New York, but I didn’t want to waste the four tickets I was allocated to give out for each game. One day I was getting my hair cut and the topic of me playing for Fordham got out. My barber looked shocked, and said his son had always wanted to go to a game, but never had the funds to make it to one. Mind you, the year prior had gone 2-9, and we had lost our first three games of this year, but Fordham stood as such a bright spot in the community this kid just wanted a brief glimpse into this alternate universe. I went to our front office to ask for tickets, and our head coach, Tom Masella happened to be standing a few feet away. He asked who I was getting tickets for, and when I told him the whole story, he made sure they were for the whole season and would be very decent tickets, too. And so it was, for all of our games, and inevitable losses, that season, I had a two person cheering section. Falcon (my barber whose real name I never learned. To this day I hope it actually was Falcon) and his son Diego came to every home game and two away games. I had a girlfriend who didn’t even come to half that many games. The most rewarding part would come after the games. Falcon would usually go walk around the campus, and Diego would come out onto the field and catch footballs from our quarterback, get to do offensive drills with a couple of the linemen. It was simple, yeah, but he always seemed so elated. It also provided a moment each week when he got to see a life outside of the rough parts of the Bronx where he was raised and got to glimpse into the lives of people who were dedicated to a craft and a life of dedication and hard work. Selfishly though, Falcon and Diego were my inspiration. I was three thousand miles away from home, and these two relative strangers were my biggest fans. They were just so happy to have a couple of hours of entertainment each week, but in between series I would get a pep talk from Diego and Falcon. At the end of the season Falcon and Diego thanked me and were very humbled by the fact they couldn’t repay me at all. What’s weird is by that point, I genuinely believe it was me who owed them. Their dedication and enthusiasm was probably the single most fulfilling thing I encountered in college. And that’s my view on mentoring. It’s so rewarding that in the end you genuinely don’t know who is teaching who.
4. What do you think is the most important thing a mentor can do for a child? Be there. It might be a gross oversimplification, but I have found that most children just need someone, a person, to be there. Life is rough at all stages, but as long as there is someone to go through it and hang out with, even if that just means building a Lego tower, that time and interpersonal connection is not a want, it is a need. Most bad behavior is a direct result of wanting to elicit a reaction from others due to neglect.
5. What is the best piece of advice a mentor can give? Whew. This is a tough one. If there is one piece of advice that I hold true is that it, life, goes on. You have to realize very early that in any walk of life, things won’t go your way. You go day to day, but you always remember that life goes on. Focus on the moment, but don’t get wrapped up in failure, because doing that will make you miss your next moment to succeed. It sounds a little new-agey or maybe even sappy, but I predicate most of my beliefs around this, so it’s my most base ideology.
6. Complete this sentence: When I finish the Marathon, I will feel…sore AND very proud to have finished such an outlandish goal in such a short amount of time.

If you would like to read more about Alex or make a donation to his fundraising, please visit http://www.razoo.com/story/You-Know-For-Kids

Meet our runners: Steve Powless

For the third year in a row, Mass Mentoring Partnership is honored to be an official charity partner of the B.A.A. Boston Marathon® on April 15. We want you to meet our amazing runners. Let’s go Team MMP!

Runner:  Steve Powless
Longest run to date: 50 miles in the Ranier to Ruston ultramarathon last year
Favorite song to listen to while running:
I love to listen to a Motown Medley in last few miles.  Always fires me up no matter how tired I am.
Favorite post-run snack: Bacon, Egg and Cheese biscuit and chocolate milk

1. What inspired you to run the 2013 Boston Marathon for MMP? Boston is like the holy grail for marathoners. Every time someone heard that I run marathons, they would ask me if I’ve run Boston. Next month I’ll be able to say yes. I chose to run for Mass Mentoring because I believe the work they do has far-reaching benefits for young people. It is better to help youth grow up well than to need to recover wounded adults.
2. What is your experience with mentoring? I was hired by my current employer in January 1987. At that time, the CEO and Founder personally took me under his wing to mentor as his eventual replacement. I felt very blessed that he chose to work individually with me on my business acumen, personal skills and family priorities. This was also important to me, as my father had passed away when I was in my early twenties. He shared with me his experiences and the values that the company was founded on. He has now retired, and I currently serve as CEO of my company and try to pass down what I have learned in much the same way I was mentored. I also still have lunch with him every three weeks just to stay in touch. He is an outstanding person.
3. What do you think is the most important thing a mentor can do for a child? It’s really important to be a good role model, listen, be encouraging, and be genuine and honest.
4. What is the best piece of advice a mentor can give? Always strive to surround yourself with positive people who enjoy life
5. Complete this sentence: When I finish the Marathon, I will feel….like I have been truly blessed to be in a select group of runners able to experience Boston. 

If you would like to read more about Steve or make a donation to his fundraising, please visit http://www.razoo.com/story/Team-Powless