Celebrating Mentoring This Fall

During lively group discussions at the Windsor County Partners Annual Meeting and Picnic, mentors and parents shared stories and activity ideas for the coming year.

Autumn is in full swing, and mentoring programs across the state are celebrating the season.  Over the past two months, school-based programs have started back up, and mentors and mentees throughout Vermont are enjoying the fall weather and foliage.

Down at Hartland Dam in North Hartland, Windsor County Partners Mentors for Youth recently held its Annual Meeting and Picnic.  42 mentors, mentees, family members, friends, staff and board learned of the past year’s accomplishments, as well as plans to celebrate WCP’s 40th anniversary next year.

Zoe Leas and her mentee of HowardCenter’s Community Friends Mentoring display the apples they picked at Chapin’s Orchard.

Meanwhile, up in Essex Junction, HowardCenter’s Community Friends Mentoring celebrated its annual fall Apple Picking event on September 29th at Chapin Orchard.  Mentors and mentees were treated to a beautiful afternoon of apple picking, along with donuts and cider.

Earlier in the month, riders came together in Cabot for a unique cycling event to support the Cabot Connects Mentoring Program.  The event featured a 10KM Family Fun Ride, a 30KM Sturdy Back Road Ride, and the 60KM “Extreme Ridges Explorer” Ride.  Participants enjoyed beautiful views while riding on dirt roads and celebrated with wood-fired pizza and prizes.

Mentoring supporters proudly pose with their bikes as a part of Cabot Connects Mentoring’s Ride the Ridges fundraiser.

Rutland County mentoring supporters also found a way to have some outdoor fall fun and support the cause.  The Mentor Connector held a bocce tournament at the Italian American Club in Rutland, with 12 teams of four players. Through sponsorships, team registration, and a 22-item silent auction, the event raised more than $6,700 for the See What Two Can Do mentoring program.

The winning team poses for a photo at Mentor Connector’s bocce fundraising event.

When the calendar turns to October, new sports seasons begin, and mentoring sports fans have taken notice.  A generous donor provided complimentary tickets to the UVM men’s hockey team’s opening home games, and two lucky mentor pairs from Spectrum and HowardCenter’s Community Friends got to take part.

The autumn fun isn’t over yet!  On Saturday, October 26, from 1 to 4 p.m., the UVM Inter-Residence Association is hosting Fall Fest, a free event for mentor pairs.  The afternoon will feature complimentary food, and a variety of fun activities including face painting, sack races, and a bouncy house.  Costumes are welcome and encouraged.  For more information, please contact [email protected].

Speaking of costumes, mentor pairs are also welcome to join in the spirit of the upcoming holiday at the Annual Halloween Dance Party, hosted by HowardCenter’s Community Friends Mentoring and the King Street Center Junior Senior Buddies program on Tuesday, October 22^nd from 5:30 to 7:30 at the Baird Gymnasium in Burlington.

There are plenty of mentoring events going on this fall, and throughout the year.  For more information, be sure to visit the Mobius calendar of mentoring events.  And if you don’t see an event that you think should be shared with the rest of the mentoring community, please feel free to email us and we will add it to the statewide calendar. Happy Fall, everyone!

-Benji Thurber
Communications and Technology Manager
Mobius, Vermont’s Mentoring Partnership