Kids Hope & Donna’s Story
July 16, 2020
Christ Community Church has partnered together with Kids Hope USA for the past eleven years. Kids Hope is a national mentoring organization serving 37 states across the country. They partner local churches and elementary schools by equipping mentors for one-on-one relationship with the at risk youth.
Next week, we will talk more about how to get involved with Kids Hope, but first, read about this experience of being a mentor from Donna.
“In 2009, I signed up to be a Kids Hope mentor for a shy little second grader who had just moved here from WI. When we met, we both admitted we were nervous, as we walked down the hall. But for the next four years, we saw each other once a week for an hour, hanging out together in the school library, playing Sequence, making birthday cards and gifts, doing homework, and reading all of Patricia MacLachlan’s books. We got up the courage to ask if we could venture into the teacher’s lounge to use the microwave, so we could make desserts. And at the end of every year, we celebrated with a picnic out on the front lawn of the school.
We said goodbye after 5th grade, but during her 6th grade year at middle school, our Kids Hope program was asked by the school district to expand Kids Hope to include the middle school. So she and I resumed our friendship when she was in 7th grade, taking our love of desserts right into the Home Ec room. I shared my chocolate chip cookie recipe with her, we made McNutt brownies, puppy chow, and Rice Krispy bars while we worked on homework. I was hoping the district would let me follow her to high school, but our days together were done.
So in high school, I asked her dad if I could pick her up on her birthday and do something special with her. He graciously said yes, so we came back to my house and found ourselves in the kitchen doing what we love, sending her home with goodies to share with her family. This year, I was in Haiti on her birthday, so we finally got together today to celebrate. We went for a walk, chatted about our families, and ended up at a local restaurant where she, her mom, and her dad work, and we had a lovely dinner.
I am so proud of the young woman she has become. She is graduating from high school and going to college in the fall, wanting to be a baker. She is respectful, responsible, kind, thoughtful, funny, confident, humble, and mature. She has taught me so much over the last ten years. It should be called Adults Hope. Kids like this give me HOPE.“
To learn more about our At Risk Youth Ministry, click below.