Lynden Middle School – May 2022 – Coordinator Report

Stories to Share

Sacrifice for Another
One mentor was ending the year with her student early. She was not able to continue mentoring into June. The mentor had her last day set with her student, but then received bad news. She was told by her doctor that she had a very important appointment at the same time as mentoring. Instead of canceling with her student, the mentor insisted that the appointment be changed to another date. The mentor felt the student was top priority. What an amazing sacrifice for another person!

Milestone
I understand the mentoring program is NOT about numbers, but I do have to say, this month was special. We hit 40 matches at our middle school. This ties the number of matches we were at when the Pandemic hit our school in 2020. For the past two years, our mentoring program has been struggling to get back to previous success. It has been a slow process. We lost many mentors along the way. However, this year has been really encouraging for our school and now the mentoring program is being promoted by students. We made 32 new matches and that is a lot considering we only made 4 new one last year. I would say we have hit a tremendous milestone. Let’s keep it going!

Promotion through Clothing
We passed out BTO swag this past month and it did something unexpected. Kids were so excited about
receiving a shirt that other kids were taking notice. After I passed out the shirts, I had three new people come to me saying they were interested in the program.

Mentoring by the Numbers at LMS
• 40 active matches at the middle school
• 1 new match was made in the month of April
• 4 Students on our wait list, waiting for a mentor
• 30 potential students interested in the program or referred by
staff. Maybe next year!
• 615 hours of mentoring so far this school year

Program Update
• BTO Celebration Boat Cruise: We had 37 middle school students and 25 mentors attend the
celebration on Bellingham Bay. It was a great success and the kids loved it. Thank you for those that
provided the funds for us to go!
• BTO policy and procedure manual: Still working through it.
• BTO Shirts: We were able to pass out shirts to those that ordered them. It was great to see the students
get so excited about their gear. Some have been wearing their BTO swag every day.