INDIAN RIVER COUNTY —As the sun set this past Saturday night, local star students and their mentors cooled off during an evening of water fun and summertime food at the Youth Guidance Good Grades Pool Party. Aside from the fact that students were excited to be going back to school on Tuesday, the best news of the evening was the weather.
“I’ve had my eye on the Weather Channel for the past few days,” laughed Youth Guidance Executive Director Doug Borrie, as he served pizza to the ravenous students. “It’s a beautiful evening, though.”
Borrie, who is new to the organization, but not to the community, having served at CASTLE for 17 years, was enjoying himself almost as much as the kids.
“I love the goodwill of this community. I love being able to help one county,” said Borrie. “CASTLE serves four counties. We are transferring from county funding, which we relied on for many years, to private donations, fundraisers, and assistance from foundations to make up the difference.”
In addition to pizza, students munched on popcorn, snow balls, and blue cotton candy. Neon sunglasses were worn by several revelers.
Bill Meade, the chaplain at Indian River Estates, was manning the cotton candy station with Andre, 17, a high school senior whose mentor was unable to be there. When Meade heard this, he volunteered his services to the youth for the evening, who was doing a great job making cotton candy, despite the humidity.
Andre had high praise for the program, in which he has participated since he was in third grade, and special accolades for his mentor, Mark Hornbuckle.
“The most important things I’ve learned from Mark are things having to do with carpentry, construction, and agriculture,” said Andre. “I just helped him renovate his kitchen. The best part of that was ripping out all the drywall.”
The students were having one last carefree fling before nine months of hard school work and tests. This annual celebration, held at the Gifford Aquatic Center, brings together volunteers, teens and children to recognize and reward those enrolled in Youth Guidance for their grades, attendance and perseverance.
“The Youth Guidance Annual Good Grades Pool Party is our celebration to kick off the new school year,” said Board Chairman Rebecca Hornbuckle. “We want to inspire our students to reach their potential.”
As an epic water fight, including super soakers, ensued between mentors and mentees, adult volunteers watched from poolside, basking in the end of summer joy.
“The kids are having fun,” said Borrie, who picked up the dozens of boxes of pizzas for the party himself. “They’ve all gotten good grades, so now it’s great to kick back and relax.”
The agency is actively seeking volunteers to serve as mentors or periodic volunteers to participate in the variety of group mentoring programs and ongoing activities for children enrolled in the program, or to provide regular help in the office. Youth Guidance is also looking for partnerships with businesses, service clubs and church groups to pair with children for just one activity a year.
Persons interested in volunteering, mentoring or making a donation may visit www.youthguidanceprogram.org or call 772-770-5040 for more information.
