For the last two years, I have had the great pleasure of volunteering for the Youth Friends program.

The program was first introduced to me by a teacher as a community service opportunity that I would enjoy. That first year, in 2008, I worked with a several students struggling in reading at Prairie Ridge Elementary.

That summer, I was recognized as the youngest volunteer in the Youth Friends program out of around 600 volunteers throughout the years.

My sophomore year, I went to Clear Creek Elementary every Thursday to work with a student who had moved to the district that year and told me, as innocently as a young child will, that he missed his old friends.

The following summer, I attended the banquet again and received a thank you card that told the story of “The Starfish.” The story went something like this:

“A man walked up a shore littered with thousands of starfish beached and dying after a storm. A young man was picking them up and flinging them back into the ocean. ‘Why do you bother?,’ the first man scoffed. ‘You’re not saving enough to make a difference.’ The young man picked up another starfish and sent it spinning back into the water. ‘It made a difference for that one,’ he said.”

Inside the note my youth friend wrote as only a young child could, “Thank you for plaing with me this year and I realy had fun.”

At the end of the same banquet, program coordinator Renee Hultgren, in tears, accepted a flower bouquet after the announcement of the district’s cutting of her position.

The grant that started the Youth Friends program in the district ran out this school year and funding for Hultgren’s position was cut. The district saved $51,000 in total staffing costs and hundreds of Youth Friend volunteers were left without a coordinator.

This year, for a combination of reasons, I have not continued to be a Youth Friend. It may have something to do with the fact that I was not contacted by anyone, encouraging me and matching me with a child to mentor, or it could have been that it seemed difficult to continue mentoring with a new Youth Friend. Mainly, in my situation, time obligations made me weary of my ability to commit to mentoring a child this year.

Through the decision to not return as a Youth Friend, I can’t help but feel guilty. The friend I referred to the program last year is not continuing with the program either. The two other people I suggested start with the program will not have the opportunity this year. The Youth Friends program will naturally phase out within the district.

If branches of the program were traced, one ends with me.

I can’t help but think that I am the end of a great program; an enthusiastic and successful coordinator’s work and the end of what could have been hope in another child’s life.

The best way I’ve ever heard it described is that all of the knowledge in the world is only great if you have motivation to use it.

The Youth Friends program is a hope to any child. Some assume that only unstable children benefit from a mentoring relationship, but statistics prove better performance from any mentored child. Personal experience of a child’s face lighting up or an innocent thank you has shown me the unmatched benefit that a mentoring relationship has on a young life.

It is undetermined if the Youth Friends program will be revitalized through the reestablishment of a coordinating position in the future.

Hultgren recruited 100 percent of Youth Friend volunteers in the district.

Current volunteers can be moderately organized through school counselors and staff but the program, which is already in limbo, will not continue if the reestablishment of the coordinating position is not made a priority.

Money is tight across the state and across the nation but programs like Youth Friends teach emotional and social lessons that cannot be found in a book.

Real lessons of success and motivation come from the quality of the relationships we have with the people around us.

Our school district has an obligation to students and the community to financially support programs like Youth Friends. If money is the issue, our district should reconsider how financially unbalanced programs in the district have become.

No educational or athletic program can match the impact a safe and nurturing mentoring relationship can have on any child with all of the knowledge but no motivation to use it.