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  • The Project Turning Point rally, set for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Leonard Park, includes free food, bounce houses and free school supply packs to the first 200 students who are present at 1 p.m. The main objective of the rally is to garner participants in the Project Turning Point mentoring program, where adults sign up to spend at least 30 minutes a week with a youth in need. Staff photo by Greg Russell

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August 23, 2012

Back to School rally planned for Saturday

Staff Report Gainesville Daily Register

Gainesville — Organizers of the local Project Turning Point agency said Saturday’s recruitment rally at Leonard Park will be a repeat of the past five annual rallies, and this should ensure success.

The rally, set for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., includes free food, bounce houses and free school supply packs to the first 200 students who are present at 1 p.m.

But the main objective of the rally is to garner participants in the Project Turning Point mentoring program, where adults sign up to spend at least 30 minutes a week with a youth in need.

Organizer Maggie Sykes said the Leonard Park event, with its cookout food and games, is an ideal recruitment tool.

“We’ve found that this formula and format works for us, and so that’s what we’re planning,” said Sykes, who added that the 2011 rally had an attendance of 400, and led to the mentoring of nearly 50 youth by year’s end. “As time has gone on, the biggest comment I’ve heard about these kids is that they’ve grown in their self-esteem and their confidence, and the feeling that they are wanted and loved.”

The program requires no special qualifications for adults who are interested in participating. The application process includes a background check and short training session, but no credentials are needed.

“You don’t have to tutor them,” Sykes said in 2011. “You don’t have to have any expertise in child-raising. We just want them to care about the child. It’s open-ended, we don’t have an actual curriculum.”

The long-term results of the mentoring program, however, are more varied. Many of the youth in the program come from troubled homes or are demonstrating academic problems. The program has been underway for five years — and Sykes admitted that though the school dropout rate is low among Project Turning Point youth, some students do slip through the cracks.

“They’re already going down that path when we meet with them,” Sykes said. “But for now they’re having another positive adult in their life, one they can count on week after week. That’s beneficial for these kids, who have parents who are busy and working, or are just gone, and they’ve come from broken homes.”

For more information, call (940) 668-5908 or visit www.projectturningpoint.org.

 

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