By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – Directors of the Central Aroostook Mentoring Program (CAMP) want to revamp the program due to funding and a lack of mentors, and Stephanie Stiles, new program manager, is ready to assist with that transition. “If we get any more funding, we’re going to try to go with more of a group approach to mentoring so we can get more kids involved and not need as many adults because we just don’t have them,” said Stiles, who took over for Carolyn Hildebrand last November.
“At the CAMP picnic held last summer, Carolyn announced to everybody that she was going to retire,” Stiles said. “I happened to be there doing a drug awareness presentation, and thought it might be an exciting program to take on.”
Presently there are 18 mentor-mentee matches.
“All we have right now are community-based mentors; we do not have any school-based programs going right now due to lack of funding,” said Stiles. “My goal is to get some after-school programming going within the next year. We have about 167 mentees waiting to be matched with mentors, but we only have 20 mentors … some of whom are inactive. That’s why we’re looking at a group approach so that we could do maybe a 4-to-1 ratio … four mentees to one mentor.
“We may also partner with other community sectors that do mentoring like the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and church groups,” she said. “By partnering with those other organizations, we could get some kids who aren’t being mentored involved. It’s something we’re looking into.”
CAMP serves the area from Stockholm south to Mars Hill and from the Canadian border west to Portage. Its mission is to provide trained, safe, and caring mentors for children and youth ages 7 to 18 from central Aroostook who are “at-risk” and need a role model in their life regardless of the type of disadvantage that places them in need.
While funding for the program comes from the communities it serves through the United Way of Aroostook and civic organizations, grants, fund-raising events, and individual contributions, there is no pay for the volunteers.
“If they want to take the child out to eat or to a movie,” said Stiles, “the mentor covers that expense.”
In addition to CAMP, Stiles also works for Cary Medical Center where she oversees the Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking (STOP) Act grant program.
“The CAMP picnic was the first time I was involved with the program, and it was really nice to see the kids so happy,” she said. “Everybody needs a mentor. Adults need mentors, kids need mentors; you need somebody that you can look up to and think you may want to be like someday. To me, the most rewarding thing is just seeing a smile on a kid’s face that doesn’t have the chance to get out of the home much.”
Stiles is hard at work planning upcoming fund-raisers including the annual CAMP Bowl-A-Thon held March 27 at Northern Lanes in Presque Isle.
“The challenge to me is to raise as much as has been done in the past,” she said. “The economy is rough right now, but I hope the Bowl-A-Thon continues to raise some much-needed funds.”
Stiles was born and raised in the Mars Hill area and graduated from Central Aroostook High School in 1993. She then graduated from the University of Maine at Presque Isle with a bachelor of science degree in health education.
“Then I stayed here for a couple of years working in the case management/social work field, moved to the Bangor-Brewer area where I taught in a behavior school for autistic children and kids with mental health issues, moved again to Vermont and eventually came back home,” said Stiles. “I’ve always worked with children, so working for CAMP is a good fit.”
Stiles and her 8-year-old son, Hunter, reside in Blaine.
For more information on CAMP, call 764-3721 (ext. 610) or e-mail camp@acap-me.org.
