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The Impact of Mentoring and Community through
'Friends' Thank you, Regina. It is my privilege and honor to be here with you today to help you celebrate the Walla Walla community of friends and donors. I don’t make it over to this wonderful part of the state nearly as often as I’d like, particularly during the Legislative session which is under way right now. I do work quite closely with your 16th District state Senator, Mike Hewitt, who recently was elected chair of the Senate Republican Caucus by his peers. Some of you may not be familiar with what the lieutenant governor’s job is in Olympia so I’ll tell you a little bit about the duties of my office. In a sense I am to Gov. Chris Gregoire what Seneca Wallace is to Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck – the backup – although in my case I have to be elected by the citizens of Washington. By the way, I have the good fortune to be attending the conference championship game in Seattle tomorrow and I’m really looking forward to seeing the Seahawks down the Panthers. Go Hawks! Anyway, I am, in fact, a little less known but have some of the same duties as the governor. I am the acting governor of the state of Washington when the governor is out of state or country or otherwise unable to serve. In addition to that duty, I preside over the state Senate so it’s my job to marshal legislation through as it’s debated on the Senate floor in hopefully an organized way. If you ever watch TVW on your local cable channel you can see me up there pounding the gavel. There are other duties I take on as well, such as serving as an ambassador for the state by promoting trade and good relations with foreign countries and I do to make several trips abroad each year for the purpose of promoting international trade. But with all of that, most importantly, I promote healthy kids and safe communities in my travels around the state. Because healthy kids and healthy communities are so important to me, I founded a non-profit organization called Strategies for Youth (SFY). The Strategies for Youth program partners with my office to develop and deliver positive messages about drug and alcohol awareness, bullying and respect for others to youth and the community at large. I travel throughout the state to visit schools and present the program and its message. In fact I did the program just yesterday afternoon for elementary schools in Ellensburg. I believe, as I know most of you do, that youth is where all the negative behavior has the potential to start and if we can just get kids going down the right path we can do so much to prevent problems down the road. There’s so much that needs to be done, and not nearly enough good folks like yourselves out there who are willing to step up to get it done. However, they would be if they knew the rewards received from having a friend, a mentor to a child. There’s a lot that bothers me about the many influences that our youth are under today. Youth are at risk perhaps more so today than at any time in history. Why? Because they are exposed to so much more, though advertising, through movies, video games, television and simply through their peers. Kids today simply know more about things that we do not necessarily want to know about much earlier than the kids of a generation ago, and I’m not talking about Santa Claus. They have to sort through a maze of temptations, distractions and misdirection. It bothers me that our children are deluged with advertising that promotes the consumption of alcohol. The industry will tell you a different story, of course, but alcohol ads are up dramatically, particularly on cable television. Advertisers constantly look for new niche markets in which to advertise and we’re seeing more or more of this alcohol advertising on cable stations which draw specific target audiences. The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) analyzed the alcohol industry's placement of more than one million television ads, worth almost $3.5 billion, between 2001 and 2004. They found high levels of underage youth exposure to these ads despite the industry's self-regulation of its marketing and advertising practices that directs them not to, and despite repeated public opinion poll findings that parents want their children exposed to less of this advertising. The hard and true fact is, youth are 170 times more likely to see an ad promoting alcohol than an industry ad discouraging drunk driving, and 93 times more likely to see an ad promoting alcohol than an industry ad discouraging underage drinking. Since the alcohol industry hires the best marketing firms in the world, it is hard to buy their arguments that the marketing to kids is “unintentional.” It bothers me that many of our kids spend much more of their time on the Internet – with full parental permission – than interacting with family or friends in person. Now the Internet, if used responsibly, can be a wonderful place for research, knowledge and education. But it is another source of bad influence and risk for our kids. Kids today know far more about the Internet than they do about books. According to a new study conducted in the UK, six out of ten children there know that homepage was the front page of a Website, whereas only nine percent could explain what the preface to a book was. Nearly 60 percent of kids could identify a hard drive as being part of a computer, but only a third of kids knew that a hardback was a type of book. Around 70 percent of children also knew that WWW stood for the World Wide Web, but less than 25 percent of them knew that RSVP was asking them to reply to an invitation. Almost three quarters of children said they had used the Net to find information for a school project, while more than a half of them said that information they had learned online had helped.
Here are some more startling facts I’ve come across about the Internet and kids:
Imagine if a youth who spends significant amounts of his or her free time online was able to spend even a 10th or 20th of the time they spend online with a responsible adult mentor. Could this possibly make a difference? I think so. It very much bothers me that we continue to hear that the rate by which kids drop out of high school continues to be high. The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction estimates that only 70 percent of the students in the Class of 2004 graduated by the end of the 4-year period with a regular diploma. A total of 18, 365 students in grades 9 – 12 dropped out of school statewide in 2003-2004. That’s a sad statistic and an especially ugly one since we know that about 70 percent of the inhabitants of our state prisons, such as the institution here in Walla Walla, are those who never made it through school. We don’t know a lot about what happens to the individual kids who drop out of school but we do know a bit about who they are and why they drop out. The reasons for dropping out of school vary, but of the nine reasons listed in the report almost 16 percent indicated that school was not for them, or they just stayed at home. Others stated they lacked progress or got poor grades, were expelled or took drugs or alcohol. Whatever the reason, it is clear that as many as half of the students who drop out of high school may not do so if they only had someone in their lives who could have helped them through the tough spots. A friend, a mentor or just someone who shows an interest, if only a few hours a month, may be all that these kids need to inspire them to stay in school and go on to lead productive, positive lives. Mentoring has been around for a long time in many forms and has been proven over and over again as a path to success. Some of you may have seen the biography of Abraham Lincoln on this History Channel last week. In describing his childhood, the program noted that he lost several close relatives, including his beloved sister and mother, very early on. Lincoln’s father was somewhat rough and abusive on him and wanted him to work on the farm like most of the kids of his day. But Lincoln’s stepmother, Sarah, saw a spark in the young man and strongly encouraged his attempts at self-education. The rest, as they say, is history. Without this devoted woman in his life who took an interest it may well be there never would have been a President Lincoln. Even as an adult Abraham Lincoln did not maintain a close relationship with his father, he continued to cherish his stepmother and remembered her fondly. What does it take to help a kid succeed today? In All-USA High School Academic Team sponsored by USA Today, winners from the past 19 years were surveyed to get their perspective on what made them successful. What makes a student an academic star? In some ways, upbringings were as different as their geographic locations, but the newspaper reports some powerful similarities: educated, committed parents, some wonderful teachers and mentors, high expectations and the opportunities to pursue their passions. There is research that tells us what has worked with other children with all of the normal negative factors in their lives. One such study that I know many of you are familiar with that has gone on for years is called the resiliency model. It shows that there are three common denominators amongst these kids. They have had care and support by at least one person. They have been given high expectations and then help to meet those expectations and finally the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to their social environment, in other words, to do something good. Our challenge is not only getting these precious children connected to someone who can give them care and support and help. It is not just getting the financial support to provide the resources and the hope. It is stopping the continual diminishing of the resources to the state for these services by people who have never had to deal with these real issues, with real people or solve real problems. By people who forward initiatives and proposals for their own, self interest with no thought for the impact on society as a whole. There are many bright spots, of course, the Friends of Children of Walla Walla being one of them. What you are doing for others and for the community can be described as no less than magnificent. Boys and Girls Clubs, scouting programs, senior citizen mentoring programs, YMCAs, Big Brothers and Sisters and a multitude of others are stepping up to help. On the 25th of January we will celebrate these efforts by observing National Mentoring Month. Now in its fifth year, National Mentoring Month celebrates mentoring and the positive effect it can have on young lives. Its goals are to: Raise awareness of mentoring in its various forms; Recruit individuals to mentor, especially in programs that have a waiting list of young people; and Promote the rapid growth of mentoring by recruiting organizations to engage their constituents in mentoring. The bottom line is, mentoring works. It is a powerful tool in reducing drug abuse and youth violence, while greatly enhancing the prospects for young people to lead healthy and productive lives. Plus, 99 percent of the people who have volunteered as a mentor would recommend it to others, so it’s a great experience for everyone involved. If you think one hour per week is too much time or question the difference it can make take a look at Regina, your executive director. She is a working mother of two children, a volunteer in her church weekly and a friend to Sammy. Sammy comes from a tough situation. Both of her parents have cancer and her mother's cancer is terminal. Sammy is also in recovery and is committed to sobriety. She hopes to work with children some day and may become a school teacher. She is currently pursuing her dream, attending school and working hard. Regina and Sammy so far have gone bowling and spent time talking about school, life and boys. The future is unknown but their friendship is a reality on which Sammy can depend. Let me tell you, there are many, many Sammys out there and there needs to be more Reginas. We cannot possibly begin to match the need. Throughout my life I have watched and learned from others and in looking back I can say how fortunate and grateful I am for the people who have influenced and inspired me along the way.
Mentorship, you see, does not always have to be from a single person.
Over my life I have had many mentors – including teachers, musicians,
coaches, other politicians and even my own mother. You may wonder if it is all worth your trouble, particularly if you feel that you cannot give very much time or that the problem of kids in need is so great. I find the answer to your concerns with Mother Teresa. She said, “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. Thank you for caring.
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