One local school is determined to better the lives of young children by starting a mentoring program.
On Tuesday employees at North Myrtle Beach Elementary school held a mentor and school improvement meeting with guest speaker David Bennett of Coastal Carolina to discuss how the community can step in and do their part by giving time and attention to young students of Horry County.
The program that started five weeks ago identified 81at-risk students that school principal, Mark Porter feels need extra encouragement and support that they may not receive otherwise.
"While teachers have a very close relationship with their students on a daily basis this is someone form the outside,” said Porter, “and children know that this person is coming from the outside giving their time but they're not receiving a paycheck for this and they're volunteering their time because they really care about me as a person."
News 13 followed mentor and working mother Miriam Silk, who said that she has fond memories of her own childhood because she had a very close knit family and adult mentors to guide her through out her life. These days however, she said there are children who aren’t as lucky as she was growing up and feels the need to do something for these children.
"I chose to do that through mentoring a child,” said Silk who spent an hour with a third grader during the day at the school’s library, “because I love children, I think that children are definitely worthy of the attention."
Porter explained that the mentor program is not meant to make parents feel that they are not doing their job. He added that he, his employees and community mentors want to reach out beyond just the classroom to help parents build a better relationship with their child.
“We are working on these mentors to build relationships with these parents in the home and for us to become a team,” said Porter, “therefore you will have a the school setting, the mentor, the parent and the mentee all working together as a team with one common goal and it’s for that child to walk across the stage where they will receive a high-school diploma.”
To get more information on how you can mentor a child, contact your local elementary, middle or high school.
North Myrtle Beach elementary school still needs 30 more mentors. If you are interested call 843- 399-8800 and ask for Principal Mark Porter.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement