Mobius and Supporters to Host National Mentoring Month Celebration at the
Vermont Statehouse
Montpelier, VT—Mobius will host its annual Mentoring Celebration at the
Statehouse to highlight National Mentoring Month festivities in Vermont on
Thursday, January 14, 2016. This year’s celebration will feature a
presentation of the Vermont Mentor of the Year Award by Comcast/NBC
Universal. The event will also include remarks by 2016 Spokesperson Michael
Schirling, former Burlington Chief of Police, a public Mentoring Month
proclamation signing by Governor Peter Shumlin, and the reading of a
Mentoring Month resolution sponsored by Representative Leigh Dakin
(Windsor-3-1) of the Vermont House of Representatives. This annual
celebration is made possible through funding support from lead sponsor
Redstone Commercial Group, and other local business sponsors.
Governor Shumlin with mentee Anna Farber and mentor Meredith Sumner
“For anyone looking to positively impact a community, a neighborhood, and
the lives of young people, volunteering an hour or two a week as a mentor is
arguably one of the most effective and rewarding ways to make a real
difference,” said Schirling.
Schirling and the participating legislators and sponsors will publicly
recognize the adult mentors, youth mentees, and mentoring supporters in
attendance, as well as the year-round service of the more than 140 mentoring
programs and 2,300 volunteer mentors throughout the state. Comcast will be
presenting the Vermont Mentor of the Year Award to Bob Wheel, a mentor of
more than three years through the Spectrum Mentoring Program. Mentors and
mentees will also be treated to lunch in the statehouse cafeteria, and
complimentary tours of the Vermont Statehouse.
In addition to this event, Mobius and mentoring programs around the state are
organizing a wide variety of activities throughout the month of January to
promote the mentoring cause, including mentor recognition events, mentor pair
activities, and benefit dinners at local restaurants. For more information on
National Mentoring Month events in Vermont, please visit Mobius’ Mentoring
Events Calendar at www.mobiusmentors.org/mentoring-events-calendar.
Mobius’ 2016 Vermont Mentoring Month campaign is made possible through the
continued support of Lead Sponsor Redstone Commercial Group and Mentor of the
Year/Media Sponsor Comcast/NBC Universal, Statehouse Celebration Sponsors
KeyBank, Green Mountain Power, and Cabot Creamery Cooperative, as well as
Vermont Mentoring Month Sponsors Heritage Aviation, Local Muscle Moving,
Hunger Mountain Coop, and 802Cars.Com.
The theme of the 2016 National Mentoring Month campaign is “Mentor In Real
Life,” which encourages mentoring supporters and mentors to talk about the
real-life benefits of mentoring. Nationally, the campaign is spearheaded by
the Harvard School of Public Health, and MENTOR (The National Mentoring
Partnership), with support from the Highland Street Foundation.
About Mentoring: According to the “Mentoring Effect,” a study released in
2014 by MENTOR (The National Mentoring Partnership), one in three youth in
Vermont will enter adulthood without having a formal or informal mentoring
relationship with a caring adult. Based on an abundance of national research,
having a mentor can enhance a young person’s learning skills and help him
or her build resiliency and pro-social skills. Youth with mentors are less
likely to engage in risky behavior with drugs and alcohol, and are more
likely to develop positive relationships with peers and adults, and to grow
up to become productive members of society.
About Mobius: Now in its fourth year as Vermont’s Mentoring Partnership,
Mobius supports more than 140 adult-to-youth mentoring program sites that
serve 2,300 mentor pairs throughout the state. In addition to spearheading
the Vermont Mentoring Month campaign, Mobius also provides grant funding to
mentoring programs (around $340,000 for the 2015-2016 grant year), offers
technical support to program staff, maintains an online program directory and
referral system for volunteers, manages a quality-based program management
database, and works with programs to lead other statewide mentoring
initiatives. For more information about Mobius, and mentoring programs and
initiatives in Vermont, visit www.mobiusmentors.org.
United States