Stratford Star

Mentors honored at banquet

Tuesday, 31 January 2012 13:43

More than 200 mentors, mentoring program staff, and community supporters attended the Mentoring Institute of Coastal Fairfield County’s second annual Regional Mentor Recognition Banquet, held at Testo’s Ristorante on Jan. 18.

The Mentoring Institute is an initiative by the United Way of Coastal Fairfield County that brings together a network of mentor programs across the region to share best practices and improve quality standards.

The banquet is an evening of appreciation to the mentors who give of their time to help children and youth in need of a special person in their lives, and is celebrated in January, National Mentoring Month. Mentors representing 18 independent mentoring programs received recognition.

“It is a real pleasure to work with the many wonderful mentoring program providers that participate in The Mentoring Institute,” Soraya Bilbao-Kuo, Program Manager of the Mentoring Institute, said. “Their spirit of collaboration, hard work, and dedication to the children and youth they serve is making a difference and bringing awareness to the importance of mentoring and the need for more mentors.”

David Kennedy, chief operating Officer of United Way of Coastal Fairfield County, provided opening remarks.

The mistress of ceremonies was Susan Weinberger, Ph.D.. Known as “Dr. Mentor,” she is an expert in the world of mentoring.

Franceska Memelli, a senior at Stratford High School presented a tribute to her mentor of four years, Donna Pfrommer, who works at United Way of Coastal Fairfield County, drawing round of applause from the group. Franceska is looking forward to attending college next year and has several schools to choose from.

This exchange set the stage for keynote speaker Tim M. Duffey, Search Institute Senior Trainer at Vision Training Associates, who offered insight on how to inspire and excite youth to succeed in life.

The mission of The Mentoring Institute of Coastal Fairfield County is to “make a sustainable difference in the lives of children and youth throughout Coastal Fairfield County.” A collaborative network of independent mentoring organizations, it builds the capacity of mentor programs to recruit, train, and match mentors, serves as a resource for mentoring best practices, and raises community awareness of the importance and benefits of mentoring.

The United Way of Coastal Fairfield County serves the towns of Fairfield, Bridgeport, Stratford, Westport, Trumbull, Easton, Monroe, Weston, Norwalk, Wilton, New Canaan and Darien. Information can be found at unitedwaycfc.org.

Information on becoming a mentor can be found at mentor-ct.org.

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