Nobody doubts that mentors make a difference in the lives of children and teen-agers at risk.

Monday, August 21, 2000

Nobody doubts that mentors make a difference in the lives of children and teen-agers at risk.

Larry Andersen believes mentors can make a bigger difference if there are more of them.

Andersen, a retired long-time teacher, is the coordinator of the Mower County Mentoring Program.

How important is the mentoring program to the new coordinator?

"If I didn’t think that it wasn’t successful, I wouldn’t be involved with it," he said.

The retired teacher recalled how he would look out over the faces of his students and wonder to himself about those lives in which he could make a positive contribution.

That, Andersen said, also fuels his efforts to make the mentoring program work.

Also an Austin Board of Education member, Andersen works under the supervision of Mower County Correctional Services, which obtained grants to fund the program.

Tom Neilon, MCCS director, and Duane Stanley, probation officer, oversee Andersen’s work as well as that of the mentors, who volunteer their time and skills to the program.

Arnie Gabrielson started the program four years ago and worked zealously to make it succeed when the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Program of Mower County dissolved.

According to Andersen, the program serves boys and girls ages 7 to 17, who are referred by school counselors, church pastors, the Mower County Department of Human Services’ social workers and juvenile probation officers as well as the Family Connections collaborative of social service agencies in Mower County.

"My job is to match the kids with the appropriate adults," Andersen said. "Some of the ‘mentees,’ as we call them, are offenders and some are not. They’re all children and teen-agers who need more interaction with positive adult role models."

One of those role models is Hobart Belknap, who worked as a farm manager in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin before retiring. He and his wife Beth have a son and a daughter, and the mentor said, "time on my hands."

He is active in church work as well as the Meals on Wheels program, but more than a year ago he became involved in the mentoring program.

"Someone sought me out," Belknap said. "I liked what I learned about the program and thought it was important for adults to help for several reasons. One of those reasons, in my opinion, is to help make productive citizens of all of society’s children. I grew up on a farm with two brothers and a sister and in a loving family.

"I’ve also taught vocational agriculture in high school and I’ve taught retired veterans from World War II, so I believe I have the necessary skills to do something like this with others," he said. "I can listen to the child and hear his interests and, hopefully, set some good examples for him to follow."

Belknap was matched first with a 13-year-old boy and now is matched with a 7-year-old boy.

He said the time commitment is minimal and can be something as casual as a visit to a dairy farm.

"The important thing is to be with them," Andersen said of the mentor-mentee match-ups. "They need somebody in their life who is there for them."

"I think you become a friend and a confidant to a child or teen-ager, who for some reason doesn’t have anyone else in their life to fill that role," Belknap said.

According to Andersen, the Mower County Mentoring Program needs more adults to volunteer their services immediately; particularly men.

Andersen has been successful in recruiting teen-agers from the LeRoy-Ostrander and Hayfield high schools to become mentor candidates, in part, he said, to help meet matchup needs outside the city of Austin.

"The volunteers can be single adults or married couples, male or female. All they have to do is make a commitment to spend at least an hour a week with the mentee," Andersen said.

A thorough background check is conducted of all applicants to give credibility to the program’s mentors.

The program reimburses the mentors for any eligible expenses incurred in the matchups.

Before the matchup is made, a contract is signed by the youth, the mentor and the youth’s parents or guardians.

Group activities also are a part of the program and designed to bring mentors and mentees together for a single event.

This summer’s canoeing and camping trip to the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area in northern Minnesota was an immediate "sell-out," because of the popularity of the idea from both adults as well as children and teen-agers.

Andersen welcomes interested adults to call him at 437-9454 for an appointment. He will visit the candidate’s home to discuss the program in detail and leave a video explaining the concept.