I have had the awesome honor and privilege to be a mentor at Hairgrove Elementary School for three years. I started with a first grader and have continued spending 45 minutes with her each week during the school year. She is an excellent student, but very, very shy and quiet! The first year she barely talked to me and when she did say something, it was so quiet that I still could not carry on a meaningful conversation with her. She loves to play games and I was always learning to be creative in ways that would invite her to be verbal. When we played Sorry, I would ask her to count out loud. Other board games would have reading cards that gave instructions that she could read out loud to me.
The second year I began to discover her sense of humor. Soon I was finding little ways that would make her smile and laugh. I felt like our time was well spent if I got her to giggle. She wanted to learn how to play chess so we spent the whole spring time learning and practicing our moves. She is very competitive and was so proud of herself when she conquered one of my pieces.
This past year she really seemed to look forward to our time together. She was always looking for me when I walked into the cafeteria to wait for her to be dismissed. She knew exactly what she wanted to do during our visit. She was more talkative this year and her personality seemed to blossom. She loved some of the special art projects we worked on this year for Christmas and Valentine’s Day. We wrote letters to her mom and made paper flowers for her teacher.
My mentee is a precious gift to me and I treasure the time we share each week. I pray for her every week and also trust the Lord to allow me to be her mentor and a positive influence in her life, through her senior year in high school.
Thank You,
Jane Winne
Calvary Community Church