In March 2018, then President-elect Jim Boley of the McCall Payette Lakes Rotary Club met with District 5400 leaders in Burley, Idaho and started mapping out the early foundational pieces of a youth related service project during his year as Club President. After many meetings with McCall Donnelly School District Superintendent Jim Foudy, also a Rotarian, and then the formation of a committee with full board approval, the McCall Payette Lakes Rotary Club has a Youth Mentoring Program up and running. The Club, working closely with stakeholders within the school district, identified several areas where additional support and service was needed: Career and Life Skills Mentoring, Tutoring, Senior Project support and a Lunch Buddies program in the local middle school.
The Youth Mentoring Program will be launched at Heartland High School in January 2019 with a contest based on Rotary’s “4-Way Test.” The contest will provide cash prizes to the top three winners and other prizes to all students who submit an entry. To start the contest, three Rotary members will give short talks to the Heartland students about what the “4-Way Test” means to them. A $500 grant was given by Albertson’s to support this contest and the youth mentoring program.
As the contest takes place, the rest of the program will get underway with Rotary members leading 15 -20 minute career explorationson a weekly basis. There will be a Q & A period after each presentation for the students to learn more about the various careers presented as well as the presenting Rotarians.
Along with the Career Explorations, the Rotary Club will be scheduling interested Rotarians to help with tutoring and mentoring of students during the last period of the school day. Rotarians know that being in the classroom and around the students will open doorways for conversation, mentoring and also to identify students who would like help with their Senior Projects. Club members have embraced Boley’s adage that “many kids are only one conversation away from a completely different view of life” and his belief that Rotarians have the responsibility to lead those conversations.
Heartland School will be the initial focus of the Youth Mentoring Program but McCall Payette Lakes Rotary plans to expand to the other schools in the future.
There has been a lot of interest and the McCall Payette Lakes Rotary Club is off to a great start for a successful program. Stay tuned for more developments and an announcement in February on the winners of the 4-Way Test Contest!