When Bob Massengill began mentoring a Brookhaven student, theyoung man barely uttered a word to the former mayor. Now, roughlyfour months later, that same young man is besting Massengill intic-tac-toe and becoming a better student.

“The main thing is just seeing how he’s been doing better in hiswork,” said Massengill. “I can see he is reading better now thanwhen we started in early September.”

Massengill is just one of 15 mentors participating in theLincoln County Robert Massengill Arlustra Henderson Jr. MentoringProgram, which began in August through the ‘O’ Foundation and isnamed after former foundation VIP award recipients Massengill andBrookhaven Police Chief Henderson.

The idea for the program came in the summer when ‘O’ FoundationPresident Rose “Polly” Powell attempted to help a former part-timeworker at her restaurant, Polly’s on Main Street, find permanentwork.

Powell said the 17-year-old had dropped out of school and was inand out of trouble. She tried to find him full-time work, but theyoung man found himself in prison before any help wasavailable.

“It just broke my heart he wound up like that,” said Powell. “Itwas like, ‘Oh, wow, these kids need somebody.'”

Organization members gathered Saturday morning for hot breakfastat Polly’s on Main Street and discussed ways to improve theprogram, shared effective ways of mentoring and told stories abouttheir mentoring experiences.

“We’re going to have some good, some bad and we’re going to haveto evaluate,” said program member Willie “Doc” Henderson.

The all-male organization currently has 13 students enrolled inthe program, but has plenty of room for additional mentors.Organization officials worked with local principals to establish alist of students, aging from third grade to high school, needingadditional help in their lives. The master list now contains about50 students.

At the start of the program, students were randomly selected.Now, students are assigned or picked from the list. Once a studentis enrolled in the program, the mentor, student, student’sprincipal and parent meet for an initial conference.

“We try to let them know what we’re doing,” said Henderson, whois responsible for pairing mentors with students. “We try to learnthe dos and don’ts of the parents.”

During the breakfast, members also encouraged each other to pushthrough the learning curve of the new program as they attempt toeducate the community about the mentoring program.

“All we have to do is continue to be patient and peck along theway,” said Henderson.

Mentors strive to be a positive role model for their students,meeting a few times a month to participate in various activitiessuch as playing games or working on schoolwork.

“Mentoring is a whole lot of listening,” said programfacilitator Charles Powell.

As single moms do most of the parenting of the children in theprogram, the mentors attempt to assist in ways perhaps moms areunable.

“A lot of the times the parent is doing the best that they can,but sometimes they fall so short of what they need to do becausethey don’t know,” said Charles Powell. “Parenting is so much morethan clothing, feeding and housing.”

Rose Powell mentioned that several members of the community haveexpressed interest in a female mentoring program. She said theorganization is working on a program to address those needs.

“There is a lot that needs to be done in this community,” saidCharles Powell.

Those interested in being a mentor can pick up an application atPolly’s on Main Street.