SMILES Mentoring Program: 3rd SMILES Annual Meeting

SMILES Mentors, Staff, Board of Directors and volunteers had a wonderful evening at Rachel's Lakeside this past Wednesday, April 29th. We rejoiced in how far we have all come with nearly 700 mentors currently active in our program. This was tempered with the task ahead--which is to ensure that every child in the Southcoast who needs a mentor recieves one. Jim Mathes, SMILES Executive Director, spoke and shared with the nearly 100 people in attendance that our goal is to have 3,000 mentors spending an hour a week with a student in our community and to sustain that over a lengthy period of time.

We also awarded the Craig Lindell Community Service Award to Music Director Dr. David MacKenzie of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra who among others things has brought wonderful classical music to our children's classrooms every morning through the "Music in the Mornings" program in the New Bedford Public Schools. This program reaches more than 12,000 elementary school students, in 34 schools every day.

It was a great night of celebrating accomplishments and empowering everyone to step forward to help make SMILES goal of 3,000 mentors a reality!