Mentor’s positive impact on young girl’s life

<p>Deborah Dalton, program director for Mentor Me Petaluma, perpetual volunteer and mother of two elementary school-age children, could say that she has a full load in an extraordinarily busy work and family life.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>Yet Dalton, like so many of her fellow Petaluma mentors, knows that just one hour of her week — when that week turns into months and, gradually into several years — has the power to make the most profound positive impact on a young person's life. </p><p>Mentee Morgan Schmidt-Petersen walked into her mentor's life as a gregarious fifth-grader at Valley Vista Elementary School, self-nominated to the program and in search of a suitable surrogate mother figure. </p><p>“Our stars were aligned,” said Dalton. “I knew that I wanted to mentor a girl raised by a single dad, and Morgan came into the program at exactly the right time.” </p><p>“Our relationship is much different now that Morgan is in high school,” explained Dalton. Fourteen-year-old Schmidt-Petersen is a freshman at Petaluma High School. What began as an hour a week for hot chocolate and girl talk over art projects has evolved into annual week-long camping trips in the Sierra Nevada in the summer, with Dalton's family along with her mentee's dad and older brother. </p><p>“Kids in Petaluma are so privileged in so many ways that it is vital to provide support for those who don't have the traditional family life,” said Dalton. As her longtime mentor, Dalton was present at Schmidt-Petersen's sixth- and eighth-grade promotion ceremonies and looks forward to attending her high school and college graduations in the years to come.</p><p>“We are bonded and connected for life,” expressed Dalton, who now regularly communicates with the teenager via Schmidt-Petersen's preferred method of text. “I can meet her downtown at a coffee shop at the shortest notice,” said Dalton, who took on the role of life-skills teacher for the teen early on in their developing relationship.</p><p>“I taught her to do her own laundry, folding, stacking and organizing her clothes,” said Dalton. The pair has shopped together for several years for the girl stuff that a teenager would otherwise turn to a mother or favorite aunt to for advice.</p><p>In turn, the bubbly Schmidt-Petersen has spent many hours volunteering her time at the Mentor Me Offices that serve some 225 children throughout Petaluma, with around 85 more currently on the waiting list for approved mentors. “Morgan will happily work on stamping mailers for hours in the summer,” said Dalton. “Afterward, we'd go for a slurpee or a swim.” </p><p>“It would have been easy to have said that I didn't have time for anything else in my life,” said Dalton, “but an hour a week has been such a small chunk of time to have made such a difference in someone's life. Morgan has had to grow up quickly, she has made some good decisions for herself this past year and she is extremely resourceful.” </p><p>Mentor Me Petaluma oversees mentorships in 13 schools throughout the city. Mentoring children and youth aged 5 through 17 since 1999, this nonprofit social service organization is dedicated to providing wise, trusted and consistent guidance to children within the greater Petaluma community who are at risk of falling through the cracks. </p><p>Mentors are expected to be able to give a minimum of two years to their mentees, though many mentors continue mentoring for several years, into high school and beyond. Mentors meet with their mentees once a week for an hour, on school campus, during the school day and during the school year. </p><p>People interested in becoming a mentor to fill escalating needs within the Mentor Me Petaluma community are invited to attend an informal question-and-answer session, after which a completed application requires three local references, a short interview, fingerprinting and TB testing, training and a match with a specific school site. The school site coordinator is responsible for matching each new mentor with a mentee. To talk to a Mentor Me Petaluma program staff member, call 778-4798.</p><p>(Contact Frances Rivetti at argus@arguscourier.com)</p>