Mentors do make a big difference

'Could we afford swimming pools for kids?'
6/24/11
Thumbs up to beautiful homes
6/24/11
Charles Krauthammer: U.S. needs a new way to decide when we’re at war
6/24/11
Treasurer: ‘County finances can be rather complex’
6/24/11
'He's right on target'
6/20/11
> More opinion headlines

12:47 PM Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Perhaps it was a teacher. Or a favorite aunt.

Maybe it was your own father. Or a pastor from church. Perhaps a co-worker.

Chances are that most of us — especially those who have enjoyed some measure of success in their careers and personal lives — have benefited from the guidance and coaching of a mentor.

A mentor can be anyone in your life, but he/she is that special person who took an interest in your formal or informal education and guided you gently as you learned about a craft, a job, changing a flat tire, algebra, or about coping with life itself.

Mentors literally can change the direction of your life. That’s why they are so important to those of us lucky enough to have had one or more. Some people — especially many youngsters in Butler County — aren’t so fortunate.

That’s the reason the Hamilton JournalNews and the Middletown Journal have teamed up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Butler County to launch a campaign called “Mentors Matter” to encourage and inspire more mentorship in our communities. “Having that right person whose brain we can pick, who can lend an ear to listen and who will point us in the right direction is key to our development as human beings,” our city editor, Kevin Aldridge, wrote in announcing the campaign in a Feb. 1 column. “This is especially true when it comes to our youth.”

Butler County is experiencing a “mentor shortage” at this time — with a waiting list of some 189 children who need Big Brothers or Big Sisters. And that’s just the ones who have signed up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Butler County. Who knows how many other young people — because of a broken home or other circumstances — are in need of an adult’s help and wisdom.

As part of our “Mentors Matter” campaign, our newspapers will be profiling children from our area who are in search of mentors and sharing success stories of current mentors. “These stories will give you insight into these children’s lives and families and explain why having a mentor is important to them,” Aldridge explained. And on our Web site, we’re also encouraging our readers to share memories of their mentors and the valuable life roles they played. Please participate if you have a story to share.

But most importantly, we hope that the telling of these stories and experiences will remind our busy readers of the importance of mentorship and motivate many of you to carve out the time and to take up the challenge.

There are too many young people out there who need strong adult figures in their lives. Never doubt the positive influence that you could bring into a young person’s life.

Share this article