One dedicated mentor
The mentor, Rocky Ober, was volunteering with Camp Agape (for kids with incarcerated parents) in the summer of 07. He connected with a boy there who was pretty hard to reach but by the end of the week, Rocky really felt as though he’d made a connection with him. From there, he sought out a way to continue to be a part of this boy’s life. He worked with the camp and VT Children’s Aid to figure out a way to get back in touch with this boy and be a part of his life. Eventually he was pointed in the direction of mentoring and since the boy lived in Burlington and was 12 years old, Spectrum was where he was directed. I went through the screening process with Rocky knowing he was looking for this one particular boy. With the help of all of these agencies, Burlington schools plus a couple of good Samaritans who personally knew the family, we were finally able to get in touch with the boy and get his mom’s permission to be a part of the mentoring program. We no sooner re-united this pair as a mentoring match, when the boy was adjudicated for some things he’d done, put into foster care and then quickly moved to Bennington school. That was in Feb. 08. Since that time, Rocky (who lives in Charlotte) has been traveling down there 2x/month to meet with his mentee, which is a drive of well over 2 hours. Rocky also sees his mentee when he’s home for visits every couple of months.
People like Rocky are doing heroic work.