90 students on Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance waitlist

Workshops for new potential mentors set for September and October

With more than 2,000 students mentored since the program began, the Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance is celebrating its 25th year. But today, around 90 students sit on the nonprofit’s waiting list, hoping to be matched with a mentor who will help encourage and guide them through school.

“We rely entirely on volunteers in the community to become mentors,” Executive Director Susie Gallo said. “Our need for volunteers never goes away.”

The alliance is hosting a new mentor workshop on Thursday, Sept. 23 or Oct. 21, from 9 a.m. to noon, to explain the program and the benefits of mentorship. Those who sign up must submit to a background check, but the commitment to the program is just one hour per week.

Gallo said that as soon as they match a mentor with a student, another child is nominated for the program. Fewer students were nominated last year while the schools were closed, resulting in an even greater need this year. Right now they have 300 mentors matched with students, but the waiting list always has dozens of students hoping for a match. While the nonprofit applies for grants and hosts fundraisers, it is an investment of time, not money, that is needed most right now.

“Investing in students is investing in the future of our community,” Gallo said. “Our students deserve to know every opportunity that’s available to them.”

Gallo started amidst the pandemic, taking the reins from program founder Kathy Witkowicki, who served as the executive director for nearly 20 years. The two are proud of the success of the program and its contribution.

Mentors help students learn to have faith in themselves. They help students succeed in school, graduate and go on to college, a trade school or a good job. Mentors are there to help students navigate through tough decisions and to avoid drugs, gangs and teen pregnancy.

“You help a student graduate, against all odds. They go on to college, against all odds. Then they graduate and they come back and they tell you that this might not have happened if you weren’t in my life,” Witkowicki said.

It all began in 1996, at Flowery Elementary School where Wikowicki was overseeing Project Libros. It was a reading program funded by a grant from the California Department of Education that Witkowicki had helped write.

At the time, a number of the Flowery families were living in poverty, struggling with language barriers and life in a new country. Many of these students were behind in their reading skills. Project Libros brought in mentors to tutor students in reading.

The school was bursting at the seams and so they converted a janitor’s closet to make a space for the program. Witkowicki had to stand at the door to oversee the mentors because there was no room in the closet for more than a table, bookshelf, the mentor and the student. Witkowicki quickly realized that help in reading was just a small piece of the support these students needed. In 1999, she decided it was time to grow the program into something that would address those needs.

“I changed it completely and it was no longer about reading,” Witkowicki said. “It was about life.”

Witkowicki called the new program Stand By Me and created a nonprofit called the Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance. Later the name Stand By Me was dropped for the sake of their nonprofit status but it epitomized the soul of the program.

“We say that mentors don’t stand behind and push the student, they don’t stand in front and pull them, they stand beside them as a friend, companion and guide,” Gallo said.

The program was so successful that other schools wanted mentors on campus as well. Today, every public Sonoma Valley school has a Mentor Center with a facilitator who oversees the matches between students and mentors. They act as a liaison between the mentor, the parents and the teacher.

“They’re the person who makes sure that the relationship is working. If it’s not working we bring in intervention to help it work,” Witkowicki said.

They offer counselors, therapists and social workers who can step in if additional support is needed. “We really want the relationship to last,” Witkowicki said. “It’s the length and the strength of the match that leads to the greatest positive outcome for the child.”

Witkowicki said that the relationships often continue well beyond high school. She is still in touch with a student she mentored for years who is now in her early 20s. She said her newest mentee is 11 and she hopes to maintain a long-lasting relationship with her as well.

“We pride ourselves now on the fact that we became a national model,” Witkowicki said. “Literally, I fly back to Washington, D.C. to put on workshops at the National Mentoring Summit, talking about how our program is different from other mentoring programs because our program’s matches are so long lasting.”

The mentor centers are geared to help build that strong relationship with fun activities and have plenty of board games, books and reading chairs as well as science and art areas. “There’s just so much to do, there’s foosball, there’s air hockey, there’s a pool table at the high school,” Witkowicki said.

They offer counseling as well as a college scholarship program. “All this stuff is set up with a lot of support from the community. They have stepped up to the plate and just helped me every step of the way,” Witkowicki said, adding that the Kiwanis and Rotary clubs have been especially supportive of the program.

After nearly 20 years of serving as the executive director, Witkowicki decided to retire. She’s been made an honorary board member for life. “It’s a legacy that I will always cherish,” she said.

Gallo was hired in May 2020, and Witkowicki described her as a breath of fresh air. Gallo has an affinity for working with students, supporting youth and helping to give them every opportunity.

“That really is what this program is about,” Gallo said. “Making sure our students know what’s out there for them and supporting them on their journey of discovery.”

With COVID-19 disrupting the program, Gallo asked Witkowicki to serve as her own mentor to help her navigate through the added challenges presented by the pandemic. Witkowicki and Gallo both praised program director Tina Baldry for her 21 years of dedication. Baldry organizes free extracurricular enrichment events.

“Sometimes she’ll take a whole busload and go to Google or Facebook so that middle and high school kids could see what it might be like to work at those sites,” Witkowicki said. “There’ll be art classes and culinary classes. There’ll be kayaking trips, boat trips, whale watching, hikes and all sorts of amazing activities.”

Baldry normally hosts between 75 and 80 enrichment events a year. “Last year, somehow she managed to put on over 60 COVID-safe activities,” Gallo said. “Every single one of them was full to capacity.”

Recently a guided hike was organized for 10 mentors and their mentees at Point Reyes National Seashore. “Of the 10 kids on the trip that day, six had never seen the ocean before,” Gallo said.

Gallo described a little boy who had been outgoing and full of life but during last year’s remote learning he’d turned into a different kid — he was withdrawn and wasn’t responding to his mentor’s outreach with phone calls, emails or text messages.

“When we were finally able to reopen our center at his school last spring, the minute he got back with his mentor it was like the switch flipped,” Gallo said. “This little boy came back to life.”

She said there are many stories like this where a mentor is making a world of difference to a child’s life. Gallo stressed that the program is for any kid who needs a bit of reassurance and guidance.

“Many of these kids have loving parents and guardians,” Gallo said. “We want to keep this about being positive, and encouraging and supportive and helping them find their passion. So many kids don’t realize until well beyond high school what their passion is, what they’re good at and what they want to be.”