Organizations rallying to mentor Calvert's youth

Friday, Jan. 28, 2011

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by CHRIS BASHAM Pat Wheeler, program director at the Tri-County Youth Services Bureau, leads the 77 attendees at Sunday night's 2011 National Mentoring Month observance in a "hallelujah rally" for youth mentorship. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Young people have more time away from their parents, more access to peer and cultural influences and less community cohesion to help steer them through the rough seas of adolescence than ever before. Where church and multigenerational family life, structured farm seasons and intimate neighborhoods once worked together to help young people grow into adulthood, today's youth often lack those "asset building" relationships. The Calvert County Mentoring Partnership is working to build youth and families up, where life's challenges present themselves.

On Jan. 23, the Calvert County Mentoring Partnership hosted its sixth annual National Mentoring Month Rally to draw attention to the needs of Calvert County youth and the opportunities available to adults interested in investing their lives in the next generation.

Roseanna Vogt, CCMP co-chairwoman and Circle of Angels director, said the annual rally, previously held as a breakfast, generally attracts between 75 and 100 attendees. This year, the free chili dinner occurred during NFL playoffs.

"We weren't even thinking [about the potential schedule conflict]. This was our first year serving dinner, instead of breakfast, and we had 77 attendees," Vogt said. "Not bad, for a game night."

After dinner, Calvert County Sheriff Mike Evans, the rally's 2011 honorary chairman, spoke on the importance of mentors in protecting youth from involvement with drugs, alcohol, gangs and other criminal activities, and the impact mentors can have among at-risk youth.

"We're all trying to make an impact, and we're getting it done," Evans said. "We really are."

Other speakers touched on the improvements in their own lives, brought about through relationships with caring and determined mentors.

The Calvert County Mentoring Partnership is a coalition of 24 local public, private and nonprofit organizations committed to improving the lives of youth through mentorship. CCMP will host its annual mentoring day, pairing seventh- and eighth-grade students with adult mentors for a day of career exploration and encouragement, some time in March. Interested individuals and organizations can join the effort by calling Vogt at 301-778-3848, or Nadine Happell at 410-610-3217.