Match of the Month for June

Marybeth Redmond and Madina

For the month of June, we are so pleased to honor Marybeth Redmond and her mentee, Madina, for match of the month. On June 7th, this pair will celebrate their first anniversary of being matched!

Congratulations!

Several years ago, Marybeth and her husband, Mark (yes, Spectrum’s own Executive Director!), hosted a Somali Bantu refugee family who had just arrived here in the United States. For several weeks, the Redmonds provided a home for the family and showed them a whole new way of living here in the United States. In a short time, the family moved into a home of their own and began a new life here in America. It wasn’t difficult for Marybeth with her warm nature to forge a relationship with all of the children in this family, but with the oldest, there was a special bond. Being the oldest child in her own family, she was aware of the unique position this can put a young girl in. Madina also faced additional challenges as she helped her mother and younger siblings acclimate to a new culture. Marybeth saw the potential to provide her with a stable, supportive, inspiring example of adulthood.
Together, Madina and Marybeth enjoy fun, outdoor activities. They’ve been able to visit many local attractions like the corn maze at Mazza’s, Church Street , and the Champlain Valley Fair (Madina’s personal favorite). They’ve also been bowling together and seen a few shows in the area. Marybeth states Madina “has a positive attitude and a deep desire to learn and understand other people.” Madina loves to remember going to the fair with Marybeth and looks forward to doing so again this year. According to her “that was the best day ever!”

CONGRATULATIONS again on being matched for one year!

Here's What's Happening

Just a quick note to let you know some of what is going on.

• Our next new mentor training is scheduled for Monday, June 9th and I've invited 15 people to it. I doubt that I will be training that many folks, but we definitely have a steady stream of mentor applicants. This is a little unusual as we come into the summer months--a notoriously slow time in the world of volunteer management.
• Plans are well underway for the BBQ scheduled for July 11th. We hope that everyone enjoys all of the changes that we're planning for it. :)
• I will be out of the office June 11, 12 and 13 as my family transitions from school to summer vacation. After that, my in-office schedule will be varied from week to week as I'll be at the mercy of summer camp start and end times. As a rule, I'll be in the office at least from 9:15 until 3:45 but many weeks will have me in the office longer hours than this.
• The mentoring program is now fully on board with using a new data keeping system and will be measuring program success a bit differently as a result. I thank all mentors and kids who have so quickly filled out the annual evaluation as required by a particular grant we receive. Spectrum will be adding a new online evaluation for both mentors and mentees and we plan to execute this bi-annually in October and April.

Thanks For Forwarding Our Email

By now, you should have all received Spectrum Mentoring Program's email asking you to forward on to one (or more!) friend the message of mentoring. If each mentor in our program (currently 37!) gets just one of their friends to become a mentor with us, we could double our program size just like that. Not to mention completely eliminate our waiting list of young people who are eager to be matched with someone!

I really appreciate your being willing to pass this email along!