There are a few dozen families in St. Albert whose Christmases will have a few extra presents under their trees, thanks to area sponsors and some members of a local Girl Guides group.
The Pathfinders spent Monday afternoon at the Community Information and Volunteer Centre, wrapping the boxes and packages with care. These gift bags filled with toiletries, board games, skipping ropes, and other activity-based items were prepared for the families with children in the Sidekicks Mentoring program.
Director Lorraine Gerling said that Sidekicks helps to bring people together in all kinds of ways, this gift-wrapping event included.
“It has a huge value, and not just for the kids,” she said. “I stand behind the 40 developmental assets. I think they’re so important … and Sidekicks just falls in with them so well.”
Sidekicks Mentoring matches children aged 6 to 16 with adult community volunteers in the interest of helping them both to make meaningful connections. The program’s main goal is to enrich the lives of the young with positive mentors and role models, but Gerling said that the adults often get as much out of the arrangement as the children – or junior mentors – do.
The 40 Developmental Assets is a program that the City of St. Albert promotes and encourages. The assets include social competence and constructive use of time to help young people to become better people and better citizens. Much of it has to do with having positive and enduring role models.
For a few hours every week, the mentor and protégé hang out, go to the library, do activities, play Frisbee, volunteer at other community organizations, do homework and do anything that establishes and builds that connection between them.
There’s nothing about the arrangement that necessarily involves money, only time. That’s why the gifts were carefully put together to include things like board games that two people could be involved with together.
“They’re people in the community caring about the youth and supporting the families and just giving them what they need, connecting them to each other. For Sidekicks, it’s a huge thing. Some of the families [of mentors and junior mentors] have become really good friends and really good support bases for one another. I think that’s so important,” Gerling continued.
Amanda Magyar has been involved with Girl Guides for 14 years and has been a leader for two years. She was one of the wrappers helping out and is no stranger to either community action or gifts for strangers. Two years ago, she undertook her own charity project, Birthday Bags for Kids in Need, that netted more than 300 gift bags of birthday items like party plates and cake mixes.
When she found out about this opportunity, she jumped at the chance to play a part, and said that she had a fun time. More important, she added, it opened her eyes to mentoring and all of the possibilities that it holds.
“I wasn't really familiar with Sidekicks until I joined SOARing,” she began, referring to the burgeoning program that encourages youth to volunteer. “It seems like an amazing program!”
She admitted that she hadn’t really put much attention to Sidekicks before but that she now thinks it looks like a lot of fun.
“It totally sparks my interest helping the youth in my community,” the 19-year-old remarked.
