OK Mentor Day in Brief

On a sunny, moderately cool day, the second annual Oklahoma Mentor Day on January 15, 2014, began with continental breakfast/networking and registration in the Fourth Floor Rotunda of the State Capitol. Fifty-two outstanding youth mentors from around the state were the honorees.

Tables with blue coverings radiated like spokes on a wheel around the Rotunda's oculus. With two six-foot tables making a spoke, meeting other mentors and guests was easy. Volunteers Marilynn Housley, Mary Ford and Joyce Owens orchestrated gracefully and hospitably the continental breakfast and later sack lunches from Panera.

For the ceremony, mentors and mentees sat on the floor of the House of Representatives while guests sat in the gallery above. Mentors received a certificate and chocolate medallion and their mentees, if present, received a little blue bag of chocolate coins. Former president of the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, Patti Mellow, read the tributes as current president, Les Risser, shook hands. OKAN's Cedric Currin-Moore and Joe Swanson, who manned the registration desk earlier along with Peju Faboro, assisted with certificates and chocolates, stamped with the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence logo. Travis Caperton, one of the Capitol photographers, took photos of each honoree.




Four photographers, Bill Williams, David Wheelock, Dayna Rowe, and Brenda Wheelock, took the group photos, i.e., of the mentor and his or her entourage, in four lines, two in the Senate Chamber and two in the House Chamber.




Activities in the Rotunda included jazz music by Chris Hicks, sax, with Mitch Bell, guitar; eight tables of the Oklahoma City Zoo's Tactile Taxonomy educational artifacts along with zoo educators guiding; Chris Simon, the STEM coordinator for Girl Scouts of Western Oklahoma coaching Teamwork Towers, an activity to build the tallest pipe cleaner tower while overcoming obstacles; and Bill Williams, teaching juggling with bean bags. Attendees could find plenty to do in addition to networking. Louisa McCune-Elmore and Paulette Black from the Kirkpatrick Foundation, one of the event sponsors, dropped by visit and see.




Press releases and social media will complete honoring those who give of their time to help Oklahoma youths.




Mentoring groups included corporate, community, school, faith-based and collegiate, and mentoring types encompassed peer, team, one-on-one and group.




Let's applaud all these Oklahomans who champion a hand up, not a hand out!

Oklahoma Mentor Day 2014 PR

Mentors honored at Capitol

The Boren Mentoring Initiative honored 52 mentors in Oklahoma City with a reception, lunch and other activities.

By Matt Patterson Modified: January 16, 2014 at 12:00 pm • Published: January 15, 2014

Domonique Anderson goes to Martin Luther King Elementary School every Thursday, and in many ways it's the highlight of her week.

Anderson was one of 52 mentors from across the state honored Wednesday at the State Capitol by The Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence and its David and Molly Boren Mentoring Initiative.

Alex Harvey, 11, and his mentor Melynda Stone look at a piece of baleen from a whale at The State Capitol in Oklahoma City, Wednesday January 15, 2014. GOOCH - STEVE GOOCH

The Boren Mentoring Initiative works to promote mentoring and provide networking for mentoring organizations.

Anderson, who works for Access Midstream in Oklahoma City, spends time with her mentee, 7-year-old Keyaira Jones, at her school. Anderson understands why that's important based on her own life.

"My grandmother raised me so it was like a community raising us with church and other local organizations assisting her, " Anderson said. "I'm serving in the Air National Guard and will complete my 10 years in May. The military is really big on volunteering so it was important for me to step out and pay it forward. And she's awesome. I truly love that little girl."

Chris Greenwell has been a mentor for a year. His mentee, Timmy, 11, is in foster care. Chris and Timmy go to Thunder games or work on homework. It's the time spent together that counts most.

I feel like I'm making a difference in someone's life," Greenwell said. "He's been through eight different homes. He's had an abusive past. He remembers a lot of it when we're together. It's important that somebody in his life is consistent and does stuff with him."

Some of the children in the mentoring programs are in foster care, and others are in single parent homes or being raised by an extended family member. Others have both parents in the home.

"Any youth, whether they have two parents or not could use a friend or an encourager in their life that's not their parent," Boren Mentoring Initiative Director Beverly Woodrome said.

The relationships can extend beyond the one-year commitment. Anderson already has plans to mentor Keyaira again next year.

"Some of the stories, the relationships that the mentors build with their mentees are incredible," Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence President Les Risser said. "This is not the type of thing where you meet once and check it off, these are yearlong commitments and a lot of times lifelong commitments."

[Caption for absent photo, accessed only by clicking the link below.]

Oklahoma City Zoo docent H.G. Wells explains whale barnacles to Eric Franco, 10, at The State Capitol in Oklahoma City, Wednesday January 15, 2014. Photo by Steve Gooch, The Oklahoman.

http://newsok.com/mentors-honored-at-capitol/article/3924132    Jan. 15, 2014