HORSEPLAY: Yes, you can be a mentor to a child

MENTORS. ASK A group of adults if anyone had a good mentor while growing up, one who helped changed his or her life for the better, and I think you’ll hear a great many inspiring and powerful stories. Some on a grand scale — rescued from an abusive home, or worse — but most, I think, revolve around a caring adult who helped teach a skill and/or life lessons to one or several youths.

I’m grateful I had several mentors along the way who taught me so many wonderful skills and life lessons, all that helped influence me become a better, more caring and socially aware adult — and I’m still learning from good mentors.

I learn best through someone teaching me (mentoring me) by giving me hands-on experience and walking me though the process step-by-step. I think most of us do. In my childhood neighborhood, our local YMCA was a hub full of good, positive thinking mentors, along with offering lots of adventures and skill-building activities.

I recall impatiently waiting until the summer I was 5, and old enough to participate in the YMCA day camps, like my older brother David did. Finally, the wait was over and I got to take the bus with my brother to attend days packed with exciting activities and skills to learn.

Group activities were taught by older teens or young adults, all whom totally broadened my thoughts, and expanded my social consciousness, to include the greater world and people around me.

I was an active participant in that YMCA for about seven important years of my young life; ending because we moved away

After my joyful learning experience at day camp that summer I’m certain you can understand why I found kindergarten to be, well, such a disappointment and let-down. Frankly, I found it boring. I wanted to be outside playing, not sitting in a circle with the other kids and having to listen to the teacher talk, supposedly teaching us something I did not care to learn in that setting. Ok, so I did enjoy school recesses, story book and “coloring time,” where we learned to color within the lines.

But mandatory nap time was the worst! I didn’t need no stinkin nap! During nap time the teachers would walk out of the classrooms to stand in the hallway, doors open, to talk. That’s when I usually when I made my getaway. I’d stealthily stand-up, walk out of the classroom, away from the school and down the street a bit to my home. Yes, at age 5, I started ditching school, and I’m kinda proud of it.

Of course, I was always caught, which was followed by some sort of minor punishment. Worth it though!

Yes, you can!

Can you be a mentor? Do you have skill to share? Can you help someone by listening to, and being caring, encouraging and supportive? Then the answer is Yes, you can be a mentor!

4-H, and other youth clubs, are packed full of inspirational adult leaders making a difference in the lives of youths. If you have a skill to share, in this case a horse skill or riding discipline you can share your knowledge with, I encourage you to contact the listed leaders and offer to help teach it.

4-H is designed to engage youths in learning opportunities in areas of personal interest, along with helping to build self-confidence through improving written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills. Encourage awareness and compassion for others, along with a sense of belonging, independence, mastery of a skill, and generosity.

Meetings are a place for members to get to know one another and to share ideas. They are a place to make plans, learn, and have fun. During meetings, members can participate in decision making, develop self-confidence, enhance their speaking abilities, and gain leadership skills.

Grace from Neon Riders shares how being a member of 4-H helps to build up their community; to meet and befriend others that we do not know.

4-H helps its members to be more aware of their surroundings (and her club’s helped by picking up trash alongside the roadway), thinking of, and helping other, such as putting together hygiene bags for those in need.

And, she said, “it also helps us learn public speaking because everyone is required to put together a power point presentation or a written presentation and narrate it.”

For more information on JeffCo’s 4-H horse clubs contact Christy Franson, franson51@gmail.com. Or Horseketeers, a new horseless club for those interested in becoming an equine veterinarian or in veterinary science, contact Katie Haman, katherine.haman21@gmail.com.

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Karen Griffiths’ column, Peninsula Horseplay, appears the second and fourth Saturday of each month.

If you have a horse event, clinic or seminar you would like listed, please email Griffiths at kbg@olympus.net at least two weeks in advance. You can also call her at 360-460-6299.