Townie to Townie Mentorship Program A Success

The second year of the Townie 2 Townie Program came to a close on May 24. Townie 2 Townie is a mentoring program where EPHS students mentor elementary students throughout the school year. Students meet 13 times each year and elementary students have the opportunity to attend the pep rally at the high school in addition to a celebration day held at the end of the year. It was established with 3 things in mind: provide opportunities for elementary students and high school students to build strong, supportive relationships through intentional, meaningful interactions; provide elementary students with academic and social supports and to develop leadership skills within high school students to provide opportunities for them to give back to their community as role models.

"The Townie 2 Townie Planning Team would like to thank everyone who was involved with the program this year. We appreciate your support in continuing to make the Townie 2 Townie Program a reality each year," said one of the organizers Stacey Messier. "Our end of year celebration was a great success. We had a great time spending the day with our mentors and their mentees. Thank you to the EPHS Phys Ed Dept. for setting up a pretty cool partner obstacle course and tug of war for the students! We spent time in the small gym playing Jenga, twister, bounce off and a bumper competition. We ended our day with pizza and chips before the elementary students headed back to school," added organizers Crystal Monteiro, Christine Alves, Jalyn Alves and Messier.

"It was gratifying to see our past mentors who came back this year to volunteer and share with the high schoolers about their first year out of high school. We are thankful for Ep high school Principal Shani Wallace along with the elementary principals in our city and other administrators who are just as excited as we are with this program. We could not do this without the support from our Townie community," said the organizers.

The program officially kicks off in October and the group can be followed on Twitter @Townie2T and facebook at Townie 2 Townie.