2017 Mentoring Celebration at the Vermont Statehouse

This year, I am the AmeriCorps VISTA member serving with Mobius, Vermont’s Mentoring Partnership. I began my time with Mobius in August 2016 and will complete my service year in August 2017, which means that each event and campaign we plan or participate in is the first time I will get to experience it from the Mobius side of the mentoring world.

Each year in January, Mobius organizes the annual Mentoring Celebration at the Vermont Statehouse that brings mentors, mentees, program staff, and mentoring supporters together to appreciate all of the amazing volunteer mentors we have in Vermont, and officially recognize January as National Mentoring Month. In the planning of this event, I was able to experience a long list of things I had never done before, such as asking businesses to sponsor the event. I was also able to take advantage of experiences I already had and apply them to the celebration by designing the programs and photographing the event with a fellow VISTA who serves with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Bennington County and the Seedlings Program.

I walked around the event with my camera, seeing all of the hard work Mobius had put into this celebration come to life. We honored Emily Bellmore as our 2017 Vermont Comcast Mentor of the Year, danced to an awesome performance by Spectrum mentor Rajnii Eddins and his mentee Ethan, listened to Governor Phil Scott talk about his personal mentoring experiences, heard from some mentees about what their mentors mean to them, got to experience Twinfield Together Mentoring Program read the Governor’s Mentoring Month Proclamation, and heard Representative Sarah Copeland-Hanzas introduce a MentoringMonth Resolution that was approved by the Vermont House and Senate. I saw mentors and mentees publicly recognized as they gathered in the balcony of the House Chambers and listened to Lt. Governor David Zuckerman conclude the event and begin the statehouse tours with a civics lesson.

Right now, we are reaching the end of National Mentoring Month, which also happens to mark the halfway point in my service year, and as I think back to what a busy month it has been, I feel extremely lucky to have been a part of it and cannot wait to see what the second half of my year will look like.

*This year’s event was made possible with the help of our sponsors: Lead Statehouse Event Sponsor Redstone; Mentor of the Year Sponsor Comcast Vermont Mentoring Month Sponsors Rutland Regional Medical Center, The University of Vermont Medical Center, and Cabot Creamery Co-operative; and Mentoring Supporter Sponsors DR Power Equipment, Heritage Aviation, Vermont Gas Systems, Langrock Sperry & Wool, LLP., Union Mutual, Local Muscle Movers, and New England Federal Credit Union.

Special thank you to fellow VISTA Lorianna Weathers for helping me photograph the event! Both of us serve through the Vermont Youth Tomorrow VISTA program, coordinated by the Washington County Youth Service Bureau.