Youth mentors sought in county
By Daniel Wolowicz camarillo@theacorn.com

As the new year stretches out fresh and full of promise, it is a time not only for reflection but also for making those ever-popular New Year's resolutions.

Losing weight, spending more time with the family and quitting smoking are personal promises that always make the list of things to do.

This year, however, the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Ventura County want to remind residents that becoming a mentor to a local youngster can be one of life's most personally fulfilling resolutions that will make a difference long after the calendar registers another new year.

"There's a lot of kids that need role models," said Chris Kemp, 24, of Moorpark, who signed up with the nationwide program a year and a half ago.

According to the officials with the Ventura County chapter, the program served more than 900 children a week in 2006- a 10 percent increase over last year.

"Our goal is to serve more than 1,000 children in 2007," said the program's development director, Terri Felix. "Statistics show that more than 4,000 children in our county would benefit from a mentor/friend relationship."

Kemp said he joined in the hope of helping a youngster avoid the same adolescent pitfalls he struggled through.

"I'm hoping that I can help just one of them to not make the mistakes I made," Kemp said. "I had problems in school when school wasn't a priority, and I pay for it now a little bit with still struggling through getting my bachelor's degree. It's not an easy process. I just wish I would have had someone tell me that this is an important time of life."

Kemp has been a mentor to Dylan, an 11-year-old Oxnard boy. It's a relationship, he said, that has given him a better perspective on what's important in life and helped him deal with the stresses of his job in real estate.

He "just brings joy to a stressful week," Kemp said. "With real estate, there's lots of stress involved with the job and constantly thinking about it off the job, and it all kind of goes away when I hang out with him. So I get quite a bit out of it, and I hope that he's getting as much out of it as well."

Kemp said the program works hard to pair youngsters with mentors who have similar personalities and share the same interests. It was a process, Kemp said, that has helped him and Dylan become fast friends.

"I was a little bit intimidated by him, and I'm sure he was a little bit intimidated by me when we first got together," Kemp said. "But . . . within two hours, we really clicked and got to know each other and it went really well."

The pair get together about once a week and spend time playing baseball, having lunch and hitting golf balls, Kemp said. Recently, the two spent the afternoon touring the Los Angeles Auto Show.

Kemp said he tries not to preach or lecture, but does his best to be sure that Dylan understands the importance of doing well in school.

Big Brothers and Big Sisters offer five programs in Ventura County intended to serve young people ages 6 to 18 with a variety of needs. The programs help match children in single-parent families, those growing up in foster care, youngsters who have a parent deployed in the military or children with a parent in jail. There is also a school-based mentoring program.

"Currently, Big Brothers are in especially short supply in Ventura County," Felix said. "More than 80 percent of our 142 waiting 'littles' are boys who need a positive male role model to show up, pay attention, and carve out a little time just for them."

Kemp said he's truly enjoyed spending time with Dylan and encourages anyone interested in the program to make it a New Year's resolution to become a mentor.

"You don't need any special training or skills, you just have to be who you are," Kemp said. "The time that you spend changing a young person's life, I think it's priceless."