GRIP Basketball Night

On January 29th GRIP Mentors and their mentees enjoyed the Ballard Varsity Girls and Boys basketball games. Pairs got to watch the games while spending time togehter and interacting with other mentoring pairs.

This event was to honor National Mentoring Month (January). A nice collection of mentors and mentees photos were presented on the score board during this time.

Ballard Schools kindly let the mentors and mentees in free for this event. This is the 3rd year of this great event!

GRIP Literacy Training

This week GRIP hosted a new project that I have been working on as an AmeriCorps VISTA with the program: literacy. Now, when most people hear 'literacy' they cringe and think of being made to sit and read book after book. Not Jerri Heid!!

Jerri is the Youth Specialist at the Ames Public Library and also a member of the Ames Reads Coalition. I had previously met her through our connecting with Ames Reads and we discussed the options of a literacy training. She was thrilled with the idea and volunteered to head off the project.

So this week Jerri gave an AMAZING training about the importance and power of literacy to GRIP mentors and staff as well as YSS staff. She spoke of the 5 key literacy components and gave tons of fun and creative ideas to incorporate literacy.


We have recorded the training and it can be found at the Youth and Shelter Services YouTube page: here. You can also find some of Jerri's ideas on her Pinterest page. The board she used during the presentation is called 'Tutor.'

GRIP Pizza and Movie Night

Last week GRIP hosted it's 9th annual Pizza and Movie Night. Pairs in Ames were invited to come meet other matches, play games, eat pizza and watch a movie.

We played hangman, tic-tac-toe and battleship while the pairs ate pizza here at the Jacobson Center in Ames. The pairs got to enjoy learning about other mentoring pairs who are all from the Ames area. Many of our pairs are in their first year together, but we had several pairs who had been together for more than 4 or 5 years!
 

After pizza we trekked upstairs to watch Pixar's Brave. During the movie we served popcorn and M&M's. The event was TONS of fun and we appreciated such a great turnout from our mentoring pairs! We hope next years is just as fun.

Mentoring Day on the Hill



GRIP at Mentoring Day on the Hill

                   January is National Mentoring Month!

It is a time of awareness of mentoring programs and the good they do for communities. It is also a time for recognition and appreciation for the people who give their time to mentor. A major event is the Iowa Mentoring Partnership's Mentoring Day on the Hill.

January 17th GRIP attended the Mentoring Day on the Hill, a day at the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines. Mentoring programs from around the state set up booths and called out their legislators. It was a day to catch up with representatives from previous years and to educate new legislators on our programs. It was amazing to see all of these mentoring programs coming together with their legislators to show what a difference we are making in the lives of youth across Iowa!

After the Day on the Hill, 5 mentors from Iowa were recognized for the '2013 Excellence in Mentoring Award.' All 5 of these individuals had amazing stories serving as mentors throughout their lives.

We would like to say a huge 'Thank You!!' to our GRIP mentors and to all the mentors out there who are giving their time, skills and knowledge to youth across the county and the world.

                 Happy National Mentoring Month!

"Play With Words!" Recognizing Amazing Literacy

The Ames Public Library and Iowa State Center are premiering "Play With Words!" Stories, plays, poetry and music all written by youth in the Ames area and performed by the Children's Theater in January! Recognition is one of the most encouraging ways to keep kids reading and writing. For the amazing story and event details please check out the blurb below!

Early last spring, area middle-school and high-school-aged students were invited to participate in a special collaboration among Ames Children’s Theater, Ames Public Library and the Iowa State Center. During a summer-long workshop, participants wrote stories, plays, poetry and music. A selection of these creative works has now been adapted into an innovative theater production. 

Children's Theater, in cooperation with the Ames Public Library and Iowa State Center, is excited to premiere "Play With Words!" at Fisher Theater on Friday, January 18 at 7:30 pm and again on Saturday and Sunday, January 19 and 20 at 2 p.m.

Join director Susan Norris and cast members Bronwyn Brooks, Holland Brooks , Jeff Brooks,  Amy Feddersen, Cheryl Kimberley, Kayla Pierce, Clae Riker, Isaiah Riker, Lily Shedd, Ben Teske, Jason Vernon, Susan Vernon and Hannah Wigdahl to experience this one-of-a kind production. Iris Brenner, Melissa Jones and Charlotte Mann of Jaw Harp Potential add their original music in setting poems by Regan Suntken. 

From wagon trains moving across the plains to encounters with fairies and big scary dogs, you will not want to miss this inventive production.  Enjoy the creative fruits of these talented authors: Makenna Wallace, Kayla Pierce, and Padmashree Rajagopalan. It is certain to be a fun time for all ages.

Tickets are only $10 for everyone and can be purchased at the Iowa State Center ticket office and at all TicketMaster outlets.

For more information, call (515) 294-7389 or (515) 292-9454.

Holiday Literacy

With the holidays here upon us, many mentoring pairs will be busy thinking of time off school or work, where they will be traveling or how busy their holidays will be with their family and friends. 

There are a ton of awesome ways that you can connect with your mentee during this season. It's a great time to try some new ideas, activities or games and also a great time to get kids reading and writing!!

For mentors who travel: It can be hard to connect with your mentee when you're on the road or far away for where you live. There are several simple ways to connect with your mentee even when you aren't around:

• Send your mentee a postcard of where you are. They will love seeing the picture and hearing some fun stories about what you're doing. This way, when you get home, they feel included in your trip and you can start conversations about  where they'd like to travel in the future!

• Exchange email addresses. If you mentee has access to a computer and it is alright with their parents, send them emails throughout the time you're gone. Show them pictures and places that you've gone.

For mentors staying at home: Many of us fall into a holiday stupor around this time of year. We drag our feet in the mornings and can't wait to get home in the evenings. Change up your routine during your meeting times. Try some new ideas:

•  One creative way to instill some literacy is to share holiday traditions. Write a story about what happens at your house during the holidays. Spend some time drawing pictures of these traditions, the decorations, the food, the family and then talk about them. It's a great way to share your experiences while showing your mentee that everyone celebrates the holidays differently

• Mad Libs! Holiday, winter and Christmas mad libs can be fun and funny. Check out sites like this one to find printable mad libs to get you both thinking and writing while making their own stories. Better yet,  you and your mentee can make up your own mad libs!

Whether it's filling in mad libs or talking about holiday traditions, you and your mentee will have fun thinking up new and creative ways to read and write over the holidays. Even if they don't know they're doing it!!

A Game to Remember

Since the start of my time at Youth & Shelter Services I have been meeting with an eighth grade mentee. Many days I think that she is having more of an impact on my life than I do on hers. She is always upbeat, kind and positive about the situations she encounters even though they are things most adults would struggle with for an eternity.

Everyone has those negative moments that will stick with us for a lifetime. My goal with my mentee was to provide her with a couple of positive experiences and hope that they would eventually outweigh the negatives. As I asked her about the things she wishes she could do, one of them was attend a football game.

The next week, I got an email saying the mentoring program was receiving free tickets for the last ISU game of the season! The joy on my mentees face cannot be described on paper. Not only did she do the typical jumping and screaming that many middle school girls do when they are excited, but she also ran into the Support Services office to tell everyone what we were going to do.

The entire game she was ecstatic and even after the game I was still getting texts saying, “I’m going to remember that day for the rest of my life!” Even though ISU lost, that game will always be a win in our hearts.

~Ashley