League of United Latin American Citizens mentors Anthony Ybarra, Fairway, and Jazmin Velazquez, Kansas City, Mo., play cards with Julio Velazquez, 8, and Kenia Castellanos, 10, Saturday at Mattie Rhodes Center in Northeast. Emily Randall

By Emily Randall
Northeast News
Jan. 27, 2010

On Saturday morning, when many of their friends were likely sleeping in, a group of students and some of their parents gathered at Mattie Rhodes Center in Northeast to flip pancakes and show their appreciation for a group of adults who are making a difference in the children’s lives.

The young people are involved in the League of United Latin American Citizens mentoring program. Every first and third Saturday of the month, the children and their mentors get together to play games, do academic activities and sometimes take field trips. This past Saturday, in addition to the breakfast, the group was enjoying board games and socializing.

There are 56 children and 44 mentors in the LULAC mentoring program in its third year. Coordinator Chris Muñoz said the program focuses on increasing the children’s grades and school attendance, but it is beneficial for both the adults and children.

“[The students] get to hang out with their peers outside of school and make new friends,” Muñoz said. “The mentors [also] have a better sense of life. It brings them down to Earth.”

Most of the children are James Elementary School pupils, although a few also come from Scarritt, Gladstone and McCoy elementaries.

“Especially in Northeast where there’s gangs [and] drugs, you’re helping in every way possible,” Muñoz said.

In the past four months, he has seen a surge in participation in the program — a more than 100 percent increase, he said. Although the program is technically capped at 50 children, teachers and principals keep recommending more of their pupils to it, and Munoz said it is too hard to say no.

With this boom in participation, however, Muñoz also needs to see more adults volunteer to be mentors.

“We want to have that one-to-one relationship,” he said. “Some mentors have more than one student.”

Up to this point, Munoz has focused on recruiting young professionals from age 23 to 30 to mentor. However, he said he’d like to reach out to other demographics, such as elderly people or recent high school graduates.

“I think you’re changing a life without a doubt,” Muñoz said.

To volunteer to be a mentor, contact Muñoz at (816) 581-5683 or at cmunoz@lnesc-kc.org.