Mentoring

The nightly process of dropping off the children in our program to the residential hotels is never boring. The lobby is never vacant as it tends to be a “hang out” spot for the residents – perhaps it is the allure of the vending machines. In four years of doing drop offs, I have never ridden in an empty elevator – there is always both someone exiting and someone entering besides our kids. And as we walk to the children’s rooms, doors are ajar and there are many, many people hanging out in the hallways.

As we walk the short distance from the van to the children’s rooms, they are treated like mini-celebrities. Everyone knows their names. Most of those who greet them know where their parents are or aren’t. It is a familiarity strikingly similar to a quaint small town somewhere in the Midwest. However, instead of a scene from “Leave it to Beaver,” the residential hotels are more like a scene from “One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” featuring large doses of crazy and a host of characters unrivaled by any I have ever known.

And as I pour myself into the lives of these children, championing the need for caring and faithful mentors, I can’t help but wonder about the effect of the mentors they already have? What life skills are they gleaning from their unusual neighbors? Knowing in all communities there is always that oddball who tends to be the butt of jokes but what happens when oddballs, for lack of a better term, are the norm. I don’t mean to sound harsh in describing who our kids live amid but I don’t want to underestimate the impact of their community in shaping their lives.

JH