When former FUMCFW Outreach Director Nancy Tully asked Gay Ingram, a retired educator, to serve as the director of a children’s mentoring program the church planned to launch, it was an invitation Gay calls a “quick sell!”
“How could I say no to my church and to a program that works and makes a difference for children, as well as those who serve them? The answer was easy,” she adds, “I have never regretted saying ‘yes!’”
Twelve years have passed since our church took this loving and determined stand to reach out even further to the growing numbers of vulnerable children in our Fort Worth community — children who have been shortchanged with no control over the circumstances under which they were born and now lived. The tried-and-true mentoring model, Kids Hope USA, currently serving 22,100 children across the country, is our guide. The 172 caring members of our church who also said “yes” to Kids Hope over the years make the difference. These volunteer mentors, prayer partners, program helpers, and supporters are our pew partners, our Sunday School friends, our ministers, our spouses, our personal friends. To Gay, they are her “heroes and daily inspiration.” To the 127 Kids Hope kids mentored weekly for many years, they are their faithful friends who helped them to realize that they matter, that they are OK kids (and pretty special ones at that!), that they are beautiful, that they are smart, that they can read and achieve, and so much more! The presence of God’s love could not be more evident than in the schools’ libraries when students and mentors spend time together. “I am certain the volunteers would agree that the more than 10,500 hours of their time and love have been worth it,” Gay says. “I am also certain that they would say that they ‘get’ more than they ‘give’ from their time with their young friends.”
Just as our First Church congregation welcomed Kids Hope with open arms, so did the school that would be our initial partner, T.A. Sims Elementary, located in the Poly area. “We learned that our church was the first outside group that had ever expressed an interest in the 800-plus students who called T.A. Sims home,” Gay explains. “We can thank Jennifer West, longtime church member and former teacher at T.A. Sims, for calling attention to their many needs. How well she knew them!”
Although Jennifer is no longer working at T.A. Sims, she still returns every week to mentor Jorge, her Kids Hope student. And Nancy Tully, who first introduced the need for a mentoring program and worked tirelessly to ensure its success, became a mentor immediately upon her retirement several years ago. Plus, she makes the weekly drive to T.A. Sims to meet with her sweet student, Curvontay. “To say that these kids tug at one’s heartstrings is an understatement,” Gay adds.
The next major milestone for this program, Gay recalls, came a few years later when they received an offer they could not refuse. “The Principal of William James Middle School asked if we would consider following our Kids Hope students up to the middle school. Of course, we jumped at the chance to stay connected to our students during their fragile teenage years,” Gay exclaims. The students were also excited to keep those special connections alive, including an exuberant seventh-grader named Edward, Jenny Purcell’s student, who brought the William James band director to one of the Kids Hope luncheons to meet his “Kids Hope friends.” While mentoring in a secondary school is tricky because the daily schedule does not allow for an hour of mentoring during the school day, Gay says that the Kids Hope mentors at William James have made the most of occasional luncheon meetings to continue to strengthen the special bonds they share with their students.
And Kids Hope relationships now extend even further than middle school. Some mentors stay in touch with their students even in high school through social media, special outings, invitations to Kids Hope parties, and letter exchanges. “Jennifer and Brian Jolin, mentors of two sisters, Angela and Jessica, still maintain a 10-year friendship with their students as well as the girls’ family and attended their Quinceañeras and other family celebrations,” Gay says. “Barbara Patton, Noemi’s mentor, and prayer partner, Anne Elwood, recently took Noemi, now a senior at Poly High School, to dinner and were ‘blown away’ by Noemi’s academic successes and her college plans. And Kathy Spicer, our very first Kids Hope mentor and one who was instrumental in working with Nancy Tully to bring Kids to our church, remains close friends with Anita, her student of 12 years. They talk by phone and enjoy spending time together over breakfast or lunch.”
Gay says that our presence in the Poly community is as broad as it is deep. “Although some of the parents and other residents do not fully understand what we do and why so many ‘strangers’ show up at the schools on a daily basis,” she adds, noting that puzzled glances have since given way to smiling nods and friendly waves when parents see Mentors at the schools, “they have come to understand that we are there to help their children.”
This past fall brought yet another offer our Kids Hope team could not refuse. Mr. Whitehead, counselor of Charles Nash Elementary, our neighborhood school in downtown Fort Worth, asked if we would consider offering Kids Hope to their students. “We did not have to ponder this offer long,” Gay says with a smile. “We knew our wing span was wide enough and certainly our hearts big enough that we could and should accommodate his request.”
Though the counselor had only asked for as few as two volunteer mentors, Gay says she loves to imagine the surprised look on his face when he received the names of 13 Kids Hope volunteers from FUMCFW. “We began in late October with a get-acquainted party and met our new students for the first time,” she remembers. “It was instant rapport with the children, the teachers, and the staff too! We were energized and excited to get to know the kids, and they seemed equally eager. We shared cupcakes and gave each student a Kids Hope T-shirt and knew this was the beginning of many more special relationships.”
Read this story and more in CONNECT Magazine | 2018 Issue 1
CONNECT Magazine is your source for the stories of our FUMCFW Faith Community — and how each fits in with our Healthy Plate Discipleship. Pick up your copy in the Main Office and Welcome Center or read it online.
CONNECT Magazine