Dancing With the Stars Event

Please check out the new web page for our upcoming Dancing With the Stars event, scheduled for Saturday, January 9, 2010.

We will be updating this very soon with videos of our featured dancers, along with pictures and other exciting information leading up to the event! We hope to see you all there!

http://mooredancing.com/

Here is a bit of information to share with your friends:

Moore Buddies and Communities In Schools present

Dancing with the Sandhills’ Stars

January 9th, 2009    Pine Needles Golf Resort

Join us for an evening of dinner and dancing with the Sandhills Stars!

Without a doubt, young people who have the benefit of caring adult mentors navigate the path to adulthood more successfully.

Local leaders in the community will compete for your vote on the dance floor to raise awareness of mentoring and the impact mentoring has on helping children reach their potential and become successful in school and in life! The proceeds will go to support Moore Buddies and Communities In Schools. 48 community leaders, including Dr. Susan Purser, Superintendent of Moore County Schools, Coach Metzger, Kristen Palmer & Rich Rushforth, of 102.5FM radio, Steve Bouser, Editor of the Pilot, and many others, will entertain in a high-stepping show Emc’d by Jim Dodson, Editor of Pinestraw Magazine. He will be aided by such impartial and objective judges as GRADY LITTLE, of baseball fame, SENATOR HARRIS BLAKE and JOHN DEMPSEY, of Sandhills Community College! Guests will enjoy cocktails and dinner and an opportunity to vote for their favorite dancer. The contest is not based on dancing expertise or training (although some of the partners come from the Sandhills dance studios)­—it is, instead, the only contest which can be won by buying votes!

The COMPASS Project is a federal grant program from the Department of Public Instruction—Safe and Drug Free Schools. The mentoring program is administered by Communities In Schools of Moore County and based at Southern Middle School in Aberdeen, North Carolina. The grant, which began during the 2007-08 school year, provides funding to support one-on-one mentoring for students in need of a little extra help to succeed and stay in school. The Project is designed to provide middle school students direction in their lives through the guidance of a caring adult. Mentors ask students to articulate their dreams and aspirations. A primary focus of the Project is to produce academically successful students who become responsible for their futures. In addition to weekly mentoring visits, students also benefit from educational field trips and community service opportunities.

The Project currently pairs 70 middle school children at Southern Middle School with 70 community volunteers once a week for a minimum of one hour. There are also 50 Mentors at Aberdeen Elementary School, also spending one hour a week minimum.Outcomes for the first two years show that 97% of matches were maintained, 56% of students reduced their unexcused absences, 62% reduced their behavioral incidents, 58% improved their core academic grades, and 82% improved their attendance. In the 2009-2010 school year, Communities In Schools will expand the COMPASS program to support 110 students. Volunteer mentors will be critical to our continued success!

Moore Buddies is a private, non-profit agency that provides community-based mentoring to youth in Moore County who are at risk of not reaching their full potential due to a variety of factors. Moore Buddies provides close monitoring of school, home, and community behavior, as well as opportunities to learn social, recreational, vocational and educational skills. Moore Buddies youth are less likely to start using drugs or alcohol, feel more competent about doing schoolwork, attend school more, get better grades, and have better relationships with their parents and peers than they would have had they not participated in the program. Moore Buddies mentors truly help their youth create a vision of all they can become…and then together they work to make that a reality!

Moore Buddies provides community based mentoring to these youth so in need of a positive role model, support and guidance. The term community-based mentoring means that our volunteers spend time with their youth out in the community, exposing them to variety of cultural and social experiences, all geared to addressing the youth’s individual needs as well as their strengths. Our volunteers commit to working with their youth for a full year, at least once a week, for a minimum of 2 hours each week. Our mentors develop very close, personal relationships with their youth that translate into having a positive impact on their mentees life. Youth experts agree that mentoring is a critical element in any child’s social, emotional and cognitive development.

For more information contact:

Chrisy Connelly—Moore Buddies at 910-400-5236 http://www.moorebuddies.org

Andi Korte—Communities In Schools at 910-295-1072 http://www.cismoore.org

I Believe I Can Fly

“People cannot fly; it’s impossible.” Many of our COMPASS Project students allow negative messages (“I can’t”, “I’ll never”, “That’s impossible”) to limit their thinking and their aspirations.

The “I Believe I Can Fly Experience” is designed to challenge negative thinking by providing students an opportunity to achieve something they thought impossible, to fly. In cooperation with Paraclete Sky Venture in Raeford, students experienced flight via a vertical wind tunnel.

In this experience, students recognized that many things we think are impossible can be achieved through hard work, knowledge, skill, assistance, and a willingness to break barriers that limit our dreams. COMPASS Project mentees realized that, if they can fly, then anything is possible.

The COMPASS Project is federal grant program based at Southern Middle School in Aberdeen.  The grant, which began during the 2007-08 school year, provides funding to support one-on-one mentoring for students who can benefit from this type of intervention. Please see our COMPASS page on this blog. 

 

Thank You to our Mentors

As National Mentoring Month ends for 2009,  I would like to once more express my appreciation to all of the wonderful mentors in Moore County. January was a wonderful month of small events honoring the mentors dedication, but there are never enough ways to acknowledge the work they do in changing the lives of children—of giving them hope where there is little. Communities In Schools has over 100 mentors meeting each month to mentor a child in need of just a little extra help to succeed in school.

Working with a wonderful young man for the last two years, who I have been honored to mentor, I see his growth and his trust build each week. He has blessed my life with his stories, pain, laughter and accomplishments. Each week I see the joy the students feel when their mentor arrives at school to visit and how proud they are when they have reached a goal set with their mentor.

 During the course of the year we ask our mentors to evaluate their experience to help us better our program. Their responses are many and varied but all have the same theme of hope for a better tomorrow.

 Mentors have learned:

 • A teen can be excited by a 61-year-old person showing him love and understanding.

• My mentee’s world is much different from mine. She is working on being her true self.

• It is much different knowing someone than reading statistics.

• I cannot make things better for my mentee, but I can be a friend that she can depend on.

• I need to be more thankful for all the blessings in my life…family, friends and love.

• I should never underestimate the influence words can have.

• Small things matter.

• To always be open-minded and don’t be afraid to open your heart.

• That my grandchildren don’t need everything they want, just someone to listen.

• Children have good things to share.

• A better understanding of a single-parent household.

• That all children have something positive to offer to society.

• We can make our community better, one child at a time.

 A sincere and special thank you to those who are volunteering their time to make a difference in the life of a child. A special thank you to Dr. Robin Moore and Anna Harris who direct the Communities In Schools COMPASS Mentoring Program.

 You can make a difference too…volunteer.

Andi Korte   910-295-1072 or andikorte@yahoo.com

Mentor Day

Monday, September 15th is COMPASS Mentor Day at Southern Middle School in Aberdeen. Please join us for an informative day on being a COMPASS mentor! (See previous post on the COMPASS program.)

Mentoring

—A one-on-one personal relationship with a caring adult

Mentors help kids be successful in school by providing students an opportunity to acquire academic and life skill habits through the development of a mentoring relationship with a caring adult. Volunteers are needed for all grade levels—mentoring makes a difference in the life of a child. Please call and share your time (just one hour a week) with a child in need. 

• The COMPASS Project at Southern Middle School—6th, 7th & 8th grade students
• Mentor Mavericks at Moore County Primary & Elementary Schools
• Hospitality & Golf Academy High School Students at all three Moore County High Schools.
• IBM e-mentoring at Robbins Elementary School